The Ministry of Culture announced in a statement that "as part of the ministry's mission and its role in combating illegal trafficking of artifacts, today the return of Lebanese artifacts that were stolen from Lebanon during the civil war is taking place." In detail, on April 8, 2020, the Ministry of Culture - the Directorate General of Antiquities confirmed the existence of an artifact originating from Lebanon for sale, bearing the number E1787, which is a marble head of a young Roman man that was discovered during the "Dounan World" excavations in 1971 at the Ashmun Temple in Sidon.
Following this, Minister of Culture Judge Mohammad Wissam Al-Mortada instructed the Directorate General of Antiquities to act quickly and take the necessary steps to return this item to Lebanon. Consequently, contact was made with the relevant authorities in the United States (Colonel Bogdanos’ office in New York) to take the necessary actions, leading to the piece being seized inside the Royal Athena Galleries in New York.
Additionally, the Ministry of Culture in the Lebanese Republic received information about the presence of 22 mosaic pieces in New York in the possession of a person named George Lotfy, which had been stolen or transported illegally from Syria and Lebanon to the United States. Investigations were ordered to determine the source of these pieces.
After thorough examination and ongoing follow-up from the Ministry of Culture through the Directorate General of Antiquities, and reviewing criminal records documenting stolen artifacts, as well as intensive communications with the relevant authorities in the United States as instructed by the Minister of Culture, it was confirmed that nine of these pieces originated from Lebanon and had been seized by an antiquities dealer. The nine items are:
- Gaia representing the Earth
- Image representing Autumn
- Image representing Summer
- The god Neptune and his wife
- The Giant
- Dionysus
- A murder incident from mythology
- A collection of animals depicted in a forest
- The child Dionysus
Later, in March 2023, U.S. authorities confirmed the discovery of two additional pieces also belonging to Lebanon (the twin Castor and Pollux from Greek mythology, originating from the town of Al-Abbasiya, which had been illegally removed from Lebanon and found in antiques markets, and a bronze statue from Baalbek excavations that was taken out of Lebanon in 1980).
