The National Museum of Beirut finally unveiled yesterday the antiquities that were stolen during the Lebanese civil war.
They were repatriated to Lebanon last month. These five antiquities, a bull’s head, and four marble torsos were excavated from the Temple of Eshmun in 1967 in Sidon and stolen later in summer 1981.
The 2,400-year-old sculpture of a bull’s head belonged to William and Lynda Beierwaltes. They bought it for over $1 million in 1996 before selling it to the collector Michael H. Steinhardt in 2015.
The New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art returned the sculpture which was on loan after it was suspected that it might be stolen.
Two of the four torsos were seized last summer by a new antiquities trafficking unite in Manhattan. One dates back to the 4th century B.C. while the other dates back to the 6th century B.C.
“Torso of a Male” was returned to Lebanon by the gallery of Berlin. The fourth statue was about to be smuggled out of Lebanon through the port in Tripoli.
The Minister of Culture Dr. Ghattas Khoury said that the ministry is determined to repatriate the artifacts that were stolen during the Lebanese Civil War.
