US Restores $5 Million in Looted Roman Mosaics and Ancient Treasures to Syria

US authorities have officially returned 36 looted antiquities, including extraordinary Roman mosaics and ancient treasures valued at $5 million, back to Syria. These artifacts were previously seized from a suspected Lebanese trafficker and a renowned American collector, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg stated that while some items were smuggled out during Syria's 2011-2024 civil war, others had been missing since at least the 1980s, marking the return as a historic milestone. The announcement coincided with a trip to New York by Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, who addressed the UN General Assembly and met world leaders as part of a US-backed diplomatic effort to reintegrate the country internationally.

Syrian officials formally received the treasures during a New York ceremony attended by US President Donald Trump's envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack. Mohamad Kanatri, the Syrian embassy's charge d’affaires, remarked that a vital part of Syria’s history is finally returning home. The United States has become a key supporter of Syria following the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime, after militant forces led by Mr Al Shara ousted Mr Assad from the presidency in December 2024.

Among the repatriated artifacts is a stone relief looted from the ancient desert kingdom of Palmyra while its ruins were controlled by ISIS between 2015 and 2016, alongside 14 extraordinary mosaics taken from a Syrian Roman villa. Mr Bragg described the operation as an incredibly complicated and multifaceted investigation.

The recovered mosaics and stone relief were part of 31 treasures from the Middle East and North Africa allegedly trafficked into New York by Lebanese pharmacist Georges Lotfi. The District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Mr Lotfi in 2022, followed by an Interpol Red Notice a year later. Additional pieces originated from a $70 million collection seized from US art collector Michael Steinhardt—who was investigated by New York prosecutors and agreed to stop collecting in 2021—while another item was trafficked by Eugene Alexander, convicted in 2025 for illicit antiquities dealing.

The returnees also feature the Telete and Eros Mosaic, a monumental third-century BC floor depicting a wedding of ancient gods, which was discovered alongside 23 other stolen Lebanese and Syrian mosaics in a storage unit owned by Mr Lotfi. Furthermore, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office returned over 3,000-year-old Hittite female idols first noted on the art market in the late 1980s. These idols were initially held by New York gallery owner Edward Merrin before being sold to Mr Steinhardt, with Mr Merrin having supplied a photograph showing one of the idols broken into fragments and covered in dirt immediately after it was looted.