Over 4,250 stolen Yemeni artifacts sold in six countries

Over 4,250 stolen Yemeni artifacts sold in six countries

Al-Hodhod Center for Archaeological Studies organized on Thursday in the capital Sana’a a special event to celebrate the issuance of the report “Yemen’s Archaeological Memory between Smuggling and Westernization”.

During the event, the center released a report documenting the theft of Yemeni antiquities and their sale in international auctions.

The center stated that more than 4,265 smuggled artifacts were sold in six countries: the US through five auctions, Britain through four auctions, France through 3 auctions, two auctions in the Zionist entity and an auction for Germany and the Netherlands.

It indicated that the number of pieces sold and displayed during the period of aggression amounted to more than 2,610 pieces. The US ranked first with 2,167 artifacts, then the Netherlands, and the Zionist entity in third place with 501 artifacts.

The center pointed out that the number of artifacts sold during the period of aggression against Yemen amounted to 2,523, with an estimated value of 12 million dollars.

It pointed out that among the pieces monitored by the report were pieces whose price reached more than 800 thousand dollars, such as a manuscript dating back to the fifteenth century.

The Hodhod Center pointed out that the preliminary statistics for the models of artifacts included seven international museums, which included 1,384 artifacts.