> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 36 antiquities returned to Syria, including 13 seized from the Met - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/36-antiquities-returned-to-syria-including-13-seized-from-the-met/ - Published: 2026-10-05T02:15:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-05T02:15:44.000Z - Description: The return includes a 1,000-pound Palmyra funerary relief and 14 mosaics. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Government and Cultural Heritage The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office returned 36 antiquities to Syria last month, including 13 objects seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Palmyra funerary relief weighing more than 1,000 pounds. District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office valued the returned pieces at more than $5 million in a [news release](https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-return-of-36-antiquities-to-the-people-of-syria/?ref=urgentmatter.press) announcing the return. Fifteen of the objects—the relief and 14 mosaics taken from a Roman villa in Syria—are among 31 Middle Eastern and North African antiquities the office alleges Georges Lotfi trafficked into New York. The Antiquities Trafficking Unit seized them. The office described Lotfi as "a Lebanese pharmacist turned antiquities trafficker." Bragg's office obtained a 2022 arrest warrant and a 2023 Interpol Red Notice against him. The charges in the warrant are allegations, and Lotfi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, the office said. The relief was carved from limestone in the late second century A.D. It shows a reclining man with a woman and three children. It once lined a burial chamber inside a Palmyrene tomb, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the relief appears to have been cut out of the tomb wall carefully enough to leave the carved figures intact. The office said it was moved from Palmyra to Dubai before ISIS destroyed the ancient city between 2015 and 2017. The office said the relief was taken out of Palmyra while ISIS “organized, facilitated, and controlled the systematic looting of archaeological sites in Syria.” ## Sign up for Urgent Matter This article is provided free with the support of paying subscribers. Not ready for a paid subscription? Sign up for a free account today. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ISIS militants captured Palmyra in 2015 and destroyed parts of the Temple of Bel and the Arch of Triumph. They also executed the site’s longtime chief archaeologist, Khaled al-Asaad, [Urgent Matter previously reported](https://www.urgentmatter.press/drone-survey-launched-map-war-damage-syria-palmyra-ruins/). Syrian antiquities officials began flying drones over the ruins and the modern city beside them in March to map war damage and set restoration priorities. Among the mosaics is a floor section showing the wedding of Telete and Eros, attended by Aphrodite and the Three Graces. It was assembled from hundreds of small pieces of colored stone. It was dated to the 3rd century B.C. Investigators seized it in July 2021 from a storage unit Lotfi owned, along with 22 other mosaics stolen from Lebanon and Syria, authorities said. Four more of the returned antiquities came from Michael Steinhardt, whom the office calls one of the world’s largest collectors of ancient art. Prosecutors seized 180 antiquities worth $70 million from him. Under a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with Bragg’s office, Steinhardt is barred for life from acquiring antiquities. The office highlighted three female Syro-Hittite idols made in northwest Syria in the 2nd millennium B.C. The idols turned up for sale in the late 1980s and early 1990s through New York gallery owner Edward Merrin, who then sold them to Steinhardt. In a statement of facts filed in court in 2021 as part of Steinhardt’s agreement, prosecutors said Merrin gave Steinhardt a photograph of one of the idols broken into several pieces and coated in dirt shortly after it was looted. Merrin was later convicted in federal court of crimes related to antiquities trafficking, the office said. The release does not identify the 13 objects seized from the Met. The office said it has seized 402 antiquities from the museum since 2017 valued at $98.7 million. One returned piece was trafficked by Eugene Alexander, whom Bragg’s office convicted in July 2025, the office said. The release does not specify which object. The groups of objects described in the release account for 33 pieces, three fewer than the 36 announced. The release does not say whether any objects fall into more than one group or identify the remaining three. “Repatriation ceremonies are a powerful reminder that preserving cultural heritage transcends any border or nationality,” Bragg said. “This was an incredibly complicated, multi-faceted investigation that could only have been accomplished through close partnerships that spanned the globe.” The Antiquities Trafficking Unit has convicted 18 people of cultural-property crimes and recovered more than 6,400 objects, including rare books, artworks and antiquities, valued at $495 million, the office said. It has returned more than 6,200 of them to 40 countries. Extradition of seven more alleged traffickers is pending, the office said. *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. Please* [*consider subscribing*](https://www.urgentmatter.press/nasa-administrator-questioned-goddard-library-review-emails-show/#/portal) *to support independent arts journalism.*