Key facts
- France returned 23 Syrian archaeological treasures to Damascus.
- The artifacts were on loan in Paris since 2011.
- The collection includes pieces from Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic eras.
- The return occurred during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Damascus.
- The artifacts were transported on Macron's presidential aircraft.
France has returned 23 Syrian archaeological treasures to Damascus, 15 years after they were loaned for an exhibition. The artifacts, including Roman bronze objects, Byzantine and Islamic-era pieces, and a mosaic panel, arrived aboard French President Emmanuel Macron’s presidential aircraft on Tuesday.
The collection was originally loaned in 2011 to an exhibition at the Arab World Institute in Paris. Their return coincides with Macron's visit to Damascus, marking the first visit by a major Western leader since Bashar Assad's ouster in late 2024.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated that the artifacts belonged to museums in Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, and Palmyra and remained in France after diplomatic ties were severed. France is described as the first country to cooperate with Syria under a national campaign to recover antiquities held abroad since the overthrow of the Assad government.
Officials at the National Museum highlighted that the returned collection spans significant periods of Syrian civilization, dating from the ninth millennium B.C. to the 14th and 15th centuries A.D. Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s former director-general of antiquities and museums, noted that his formal request for the artifacts' return in 2014 went unanswered due to Syria's international isolation and sanctions. He also recounted personal repercussions from security forces for his efforts to retrieve the items.
Abdulkarim welcomed the renewed cultural cooperation, seeing it as a positive sign for Syria's reopening to the world. He mentioned that other Syrian artifacts have been repatriated from Italy and Japan under different agreements, but thousands of looted artifacts remain scattered globally, requiring extensive diplomatic efforts for their recovery.