Overview
- The handover took place during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Damascus on Thursday when 23 objects were flown on the presidential plane and handed to Syria’s Directorate‑General of Antiquities and Museums for the National Museum.
- The group includes Roman bronze items, Byzantine and Islamic‑era pieces and a richly colored mosaic panel from the Umayyad Mosque that span periods from the ninth millennium B.C. to the 14th–15th centuries A.D.
- Those objects were loaned in 2011 to an exhibition at the Arab World Institute in Paris and remained in France after diplomatic relations broke down during Syria’s unrest.
- Syrian authorities say the pieces came from museums in Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia and Palmyra and that the DGAM will conserve them to international standards before showing them in a dedicated exhibition at the National Museum.
- Experts and former officials warn thousands of artifacts looted or displaced during the conflict still sit in collections overseas and that recovering them will require years of diplomacy and technical restoration work.