Valuable Artifacts Taken from Syria's National Museum in Damascus
Valuable artifacts and other artefacts have been removed from Syria's National Museum in Damascus, sources confirm.
The burglary was noticed on the start of the week, when staff apparently found that an entrance had been broken from the inside.
The half-dozen stolen sculptures were crafted from marble and traced back to the Roman era, a source told the Associated Press.
Cultural heritage officials said it had initiated an inquiry to establish the "circumstances surrounding the loss of a collection of exhibits", and that measures had been taken to strengthen security and surveillance.
The director of domestic security in the Damascus region, Brig-Gen Osama Atkeh, was cited by the official media as saying that law enforcement were probing the incident, which he said had focused on several "ancient sculptures and valuable objects".
He noted that security personnel at the facility and additional people were being interrogated.
The Damascus Museum, which was created in 1919, contains the most important cultural treasures in the country.
It features clay cuneiform tablets originating to the 14th Century BC from Ugarit, where indications of the most ancient complete alphabet was found; early centuries CE Greco-Roman sculptures from the ancient city, among the foremost historical locations of the classical era; and a 3rd Century AD Jewish temple that was built at Dura Europos.
The museum was compelled to shut in the early 2010s, twelve months after the outbreak of the internal strife. Most of the collection was removed and preserved at secure places to ensure their safety.
It partially resumed in 2018 and returned to normal in the beginning of the year, four weeks after opposition groups deposed President Bashar al-Assad.
All six of Syria's Unesco World Heritage sites were harmed or partly ruined during the conflict.
The militant faction blew up several ancient buildings and other structures at Palmyra, asserting that they were idolatrous. The cultural organization denounced the demolition as a atrocity.
Countless artefacts were also damaged or stolen from archaeological sites and cultural institutions.
