Damascus National Museum Robbed Tottenham Searches for Missing Artifacts
Syria’s cultural authorities confirmed on Tuesday that several artifacts had been daringly stolen from the classical department of Damascus’s National Museum, which was temporarily closed this week.
Founded in 1919, the museum houses thousands of artifacts from prehistoric times to Roman and Byzantine times, reflecting Syria’s deep cultural heritage. Security at the museum was tightened last December when Syria’s 14-year civil war broke out and the Assad regime fell in 1954. The building remained closed for six years during the Syrian civil war and was closed again on December 7, 2024, the day before anti-Assad forces arrived in Damascus, for fear of looting. The museum reopened in January with its collection intact, but closed briefly this week after the robbery.
The theft reportedly took place on Sunday night and was discovered on Monday morning when a door was broken down. An anonymous source close to the museum’s management told AFP that six items had been stolen, describing them as gold ingots but declining to confirm their age or provenance. A security source told the news outlet that “several museum employees and guards were detained” after the theft and “were questioned before being released.”
Six Hellenistic marble statues from the Classics department were also stolen, an official from Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. (The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules prohibiting public speech.)
art news Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums has been contacted for comment.
Damascus Police Chief Brig.-Gen. General Osama Atkeh confirmed to state news agency SANA that several statues and valuable collections from the museum had been taken. Atke said the investigation is ongoing.
Syria’s arts and culture sector has begun to rebuild after being damaged and looted during two decades of conflict. In 2014, the ancient city of Palmyra was targeted by the terrorist group ISIS, which launched a campaign of destruction against heritage sites across Syria, Iraq and Libya. As of 2015, at least 41 major cultural heritage and monuments have been damaged in Syria, including the Temple of Bel, the Temple of Baal Shamin, the Lion of Alat, the Elabel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Earlier this month, UNESCO and the Arif Foundation organized the first international conference dedicated to restoring Syrian heritage sites since Assad’s fall.
The theft at the National Museum is the latest in a series of thefts targeting cultural institutions around the world. In October, a Chinese woman was arrested and accused of stealing $1 million worth of gold from Paris’s Museum of Natural History in a break-in just weeks before the historic Louvre jewelry theft.
