Three plundered statues were removed from the ancient city of Palmyra in 2009 or 2010. They were apprehended by Swiss customs police at a Geneva freeport some years later. They are finally returning to Syria.
© MAH, PHOTO : F. BEVILACQUA
The three sculptures are from the second and third century B.C.E., when Palmyra was still a trading hub, presumably during Queen Zenobia's reign. A bust of a priest wearing a ceremonial headdress is one of the sculptures. The looters severely destroyed the sculpture when they stole it from the site, as the head used to have a body. Experts have proposed several theories on which statue the head belongs to, but no confirmation has been provided. The other two sculptures are funeral reliefs depicting a lady and a man accompanied by an animal carrying a ring in its mouth.
The statues were plundered before Syria's Civil War broke out. Terrorist organizations have been known to profit from looted artifacts from ancient sites such as Palmyra. During ISIS's reign of terror, artifacts looted by the group flooded the antiquities market. In what has been dubbed "cultural genocide," ISIS made a determined attempt to destroy pre-Islamic antiquities as well as much of Palmyra. One of the first steps toward addressing the scars of these massive losses is the recovery of these treasures from Palmyra.
To raise awareness about the dangers of stealing, the plundered items were shown at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva in 2017. The UN conducted a trial in 2020, and it was then that Syrian officials claimed the pieces and demanded their return. The statues were kept secure in the Musée d'art et d'histoire until the handover.
Authorities uncovered the relics in Geneva and discovered that they had been transported from Qatar. Other plundered antiques from Libya and Yemen were discovered beside the statues. Last Monday, the sculptures were presented to Syria's permanent representation to the United Nations.
Selena Mattei