Syria’s Ministry of Culture yesterday appeared to publish details of the artifacts stolen from the Damascus National Museum on Sunday, only to delete the brief statement several hours later. The now-removed post has intensified demands for transparency over what was stolen and how the investigation is proceeding.
On Tuesday, international media reported that six Roman-era statues and several gold ingots had been stolen from the museum’s classical department, citing anonymous sources. Later that same day, the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) and Syria’s Ministry of Culture, which administers it, confirmed that items had been stolen from the museum and that an investigation had been launched, but declined to provide further details.
Around 8:30 p.m. Damascus time on Wednesday, the news outlet Syria Now published images on Facebook of six statues it claimed were the stolen artifacts. This claim appeared to be corroborated half an hour later, when the culture ministry posted a notice featuring the same nude marble statutes of the goddess Venus, along with their dimensions and catalogue numbers, appealing to the public for information. Within hours, however, the post was taken down.
ARTnews‘ requests for comment to the DGAM and the Ministry of Culture have gone unanswered.
Established in 1919, the museum houses thousands of antiquities spanning from prehistory through the Roman and Byzantine eras. Security at the museum was reinforced at the onset of Syria’s 14-year civil war and the later collapse of the 54-year Assad regime last December. The building closed for six years during the Syrian Civil War, and again on December 7, 2024, a day before rebels reached Damascus, spurring concerns of looting. The museum reopened this January.
In the wake of the theft, however, previously noted concerns about the museum’s security capabilities have resurfaced.
“During an assessment of the museum conducted this summer, UNESCO did note serious deficiencies in safety provisions,” a spokesperson for the agency told the Art Newspaper. “As a response, [UNESCO] is currently supporting the Damascus Museum in purchasing surveillance, doors locking and fire alarm systems to implement essential security upgrades aiming to enhance the protection of one storage room only, due to limited resources.”
The theft reportedly took place on Sunday night and was discovered Monday morning when a door was found broken. One anonymous source close to museum management told the AFP that six items were stolen, describing them as gold ingots but declining to confirm their age or provenance. (Anonymity was granted due to government regulations prohibiting public statements.) The police chief in Damascus, Brig. Gen. Osama Atkeh, told state news agency SANA that several statues and rare collectibles were stolen from the museum. Several employees and guards at the museum were reportedly detained following the theft and interrogated before being released.
