Six Roman-era statues stolen from Damascus National Museum

Summary

Museum staff discovered on Monday that one of the Damascus National Museum's doors had been broken from the inside and six marble statues dating to the Roman era are missing. Syria's Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums said it has opened an investigation and strengthened protection and monitoring systems. The head of internal security in Damascus province, Brig-Gen Osama Atkeh, said security forces were probing the theft, questioning museum guards and other individuals linked to the case.

The National Museum, founded in 1919, houses Syria's most significant archaeological collection, including Ugarit's cuneiform tablets and Greco-Roman sculptures from Palmyra. The museum was closed in 2012 and much of its collection was moved to secret locations; it reopened partially in 2018 and resumed full operations in January 2025. The loss comes amid a wider pattern of damage, looting and destruction of Syria's UNESCO World Heritage sites during the civil war, highlighting the cultural stakes of the investigation, as reported by BBC