Today, the Lebanese Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Mustafa Adib, received the Ashmoun archaeological head from Mr. Christian Klein, the head of the property crimes unit of the Bavarian criminal police. This delivery is part of an initiative by the Lebanese Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, represented by the Lebanese Embassy in Berlin. The embassy expressed gratitude to the German Foreign Ministry, the Bavarian criminal police, and the auction house Gorney & Mosch. The recovered artifact will be shipped to Lebanon through appropriate channels and handed over to the Ministry of Culture.
Minister of Culture Mohammad Wissam Mortada had sent a letter through the Foreign Ministry to the Lebanese embassy in Berlin to retrieve a stolen artifact from Lebanon that was listed in an auction organized by Gorney & Mosch in Munich. As a result of communications made by the Lebanese Embassy in Berlin with the relevant German authorities, the artifact was withdrawn and received by the embassy today.
It is notable that the recovered Ashmoun head is listed in the inventory of the Directorate General of Antiquities and was documented according to proper protocols by archaeologist Donan, who supervised the excavations at the Sheikh's Garden site near Sidon. At that time, the head was stored in Sidon’s warehouses before being transferred to the Byblos warehouses, where it was stolen between July 29 and 30, 1981.
