Syria regains its antiquities from Britain

The Syrian Minister of Culture, Lubana Mashwah, revealed that the Oman National Museum had received a priceless Syrian artifact after her country requested to receive it without hesitation, and to transfer the piece from Britain to Muscat.
This archaeological piece is one of hundreds of pieces that have fallen into the hands of tamperers and antiquities thieves in areas controlled by armed gangs and where terrorists have wreaked vandalism and looting.
The Syrian Minister indicated that the initiative to retrieve Syrian artifacts to their homeland is the result of tripartite cooperation between the Oman National Museum, the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Hermitage Museum in the Russian Federation, and a continuation of the process of cooperation in the matter of preserving and preserving the Syrian heritage that was damaged during the years of the crisis. .
Al-Mashouh also stressed that “this recovery has its own symbolism, as it is a victory for right over wrong, and for civilization over barbarism,” adding: “Today, great efforts made by several parties over the years have been crowned with success, driven by their awareness of the human and cultural value of these antiquities, and their deep belief in the gravity of the crime of stealing and smuggling them, and in the necessity of combating them.” Illegal trade in them and returning them to their owners.”
The minister said, “The Syrian antiquities were found in Britain through a British journalist who alerted to the presence of a stolen piece of antiquities in his country, which is the ‘Hourani lintel’ stone. She bears responsibility for verifying his identity and whether he is of Syrian origin, and in cooperation with specialists in the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums who made efforts to They exerted diligent efforts in examining the museum documents and embarked on an arduous search for the sites that had been vandalized and stolen. They focused their efforts on the southern region, where the basalt stones are located.
She also continued: “The French mission that had previously worked at the “Nawa” site was contacted, and it became clear to them that the Hourani sash was stolen from the site, which was at that time under the control of the Al-Nusra Front. They completed long procedures with the British Museum after liberating the site and provided the museum with all the documents and pictures that prove it. The piece is Syrian Hourani.”
It is also mentioned that the returned artifacts are a stone “lintel” and parts of an archaeological building made of steatite dating back to the middle of the fourth century AD (the Byzantine Empire), and the origin of the artifacts goes back to the archaeological site of Nawa, in the city of Hauran, located in the south of the Syrian Arab Republic.