Metropolitan Museum of Art returns antiquities to Yemen

The marble mortar is one of two artifacts returned to Yemen. (Source: AFP)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA) announced on September 19 that it had transferred ownership of two precious artifacts to the Yemeni government , including a sandstone sculpture of a woman and a marble mortar.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both artifacts date back to the third millennium BC and originated in what is now Yemen.

The museum acquired the sculpture from collector Jean-Luc Chalmin in 1998. Meanwhile, the marble mortar was a gift from Mr. Jean-Luc Chalmin to the museum in 1999.

“Experts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art have studied the provenance of the artifacts and determined that they were found near Marib in 1984 and are legally owned by the Republic of Yemen,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art said in a statement.

In recent years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other prestigious museums in the United States and around the world have worked with investigators to identify looted or stolen works of art and return them to their countries of origin.

Since 2022, more than 950 artifacts with an estimated total value of $165 million have been returned to 19 countries, including Cambodia, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece, Turkey and Italy.

In a statement on September 19, Yemeni Ambassador to the US Mohammed Al-Hadhrami said that the government of this country and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have signed an agreement, according to which the two artifacts will be kept in New York to ensure safety amid the ongoing conflict.

“Given the current situation in Yemen, it is not the right time to return these artifacts to their homeland. We are pleased that these artifacts remain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one of the world’s most prominent and prestigious cultural institutions,” said Mohammed Al-Hadhrami.

Last February, the US also announced the return of 77 antiquities to Yemen, but these artifacts are still kept at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

The eight-year conflict in Yemen has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country into one of the world's worst humanitarian tragedies.

VNA

Source: http://www.baovanhoa.vn/the-gioi/artmid/425/articleid/69246/my-bao-tang-nghe-thuat-metropolitan-trao-tra-co-vat-cho-yemen