US returns ancient looted treasures to Syria

US authorities have returned to Syria “extraordinary” Roman mosaics and other looted treasures seized from a suspected Lebanese trafficker and a renowned American collector, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has said.

Some of the pieces were smuggled out of Syria during the country's 2011-2024 civil war , while others had been missing since at least the 1980s, according to District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He described the return of the 36 pieces, valued at $5 million, as historic.

The announcement came at the end of a trip by Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara to New York. Mr Al Shara addressed the UN General Assembly and met world leaders as part of a US-backed drive to rehabilitate the country on the international stage.

Syrian officials received the treasures at a ceremony in New York attended by US President Donald Trump's envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack. Mohamad Kanatri, the Syrian embassy's charge d’affaires, said that “a part of Syria’s history is finally returning home”.

The US has emerged as a powerful supporter of Syria since the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime. Militant forces led by Mr Al Shara ousted Mr Assad from the presidency in December 2024.

Among the items returned is a stone relief looted from the ancient desert kingdom of Palmyra while its ruins were under the control of ISIS between 2015 and 2016. There were also 14 “extraordinary mosaics looted from a Syrian Roman villa”, Mr Bragg's office said.

“This was an incredibly complicated, multifaceted investigation,” Mr Bragg said.

The mosaics and stone relief were among 31 treasures from the Middle East and North Africa allegedly trafficked into New York by Georges Lotfi, a Lebanese pharmacist. In 2022, the District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant against Mr Lotfi. A year later, Interpol issued a Red Notice for him.

Four of the pieces were from a $70 million haul seized from US art collector Michael Steinhardt, who was investigated by New York prosecutors agreeing in 2021 to stop collecting. Another piece was trafficked by Eugene Alexander, who was convicted in 2025 for illicit dealing in antiquities.

The items returned to Syria also include the Telete and Eros Mosaic, a “monumental” floor from the third century BC depicting a wedding of ancient gods. It was among 23 stolen Lebanese and Syrian mosaics discovered at a storage unit owned by Mr Lotfi.

The District Attorney's Office also returned Hittite female idols that are more than 3,000 years old. They first appeared on the art market in the late 1980s and were in the possession of a New York gallery owner called Edward Merrin, then sold to Mr Steinhardt.

Mr Merrin provided Mr Steinhardt with a photograph of one of the idols “showing it broken into multiple fragments and covered in dirt just after it had been looted”, the statement said.