Earlier this week, Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., the District Attorney of Manhattan, declared that three looted artifacts, which together hold a value of $725,000, would be returned to Yemen. The three items consist of an alabaster ram with an inscribed base, an alabaster female figure, and a silver vessel that has intricately inscribed decorations.
During a criminal investigation into private collector and Metropolitan Museum of Art trustee Shelby White, the authorities discovered the three antiquities. The investigation led to the confiscation of 89 items from ten different countries, worth nearly $69 million, from White. Among these were nine antiquities that were returned to Turkey last month, as well as Roman and Greek antiquities that were seized last December.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has reported that the three artifacts were obtained by Shelby White from different sources, including the Mansour Gallery in London, art dealer Robin Symes who was convicted of antiquities trafficking in 2005, and a Christie’s auction in New York.
The first repatriated item, an alabaster ram, was originally a funerary object from the Hayd bin Aqeel necropolis in Shabwa, Yemen, which was looted in 1994 during the civil war in Yemen. The ram dates back to the 5th century B.C.E. The second item, an alabaster female figure, is also a funerary artifact portraying a female deity and dates back to the 2nd century B.C.E. The third item, an inscribed silver vessel, has an inscription indicating that it originates from the same looted location as the alabaster ram, and dates back to 200 to 300 C.E.
District Attorney Bragg stated that the return of the artifacts “underscores how art and culture can serve as powerful symbols of hope.” The investigation into Shelby White has resulted in the return of numerous antiquities that were taken from their countries of origin. Due to the ongoing civil war in Yemen, the three artifacts will be temporarily exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.