Yemen Identifies 28 Looted Artifacts at British Museum, London Auction Houses
Yemen’s General Authority for Antiquities and Museums said it identified 28 allegedly looted Yemeni artifacts in overseas collections, including eight recently offered at London auctions and about 20 held by the British Museum. The authority said the auction objects appeared around July 2 at Bonhams in London and at Apollo Art Auctions, and included statue heads, a statue, an inscription, and funerary stelae; Bonhams listed two “South Arabian” alabaster heads as sold. Yemen’s “Our Looted Heritage” project published the findings as its 34th list, and the authority has previously estimated more than 13,000 antiquities have been smuggled out of Yemen since 1994, including around 8,000 during the past decade of conflict. ARTnews sought comment from the auction houses, and the British Museum did not respond to a request for comment.
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This story was covered in Looted Legacies, Museum Scandals, and AI Showdowns