Ancient Artifacts Stolen from the National Museum Located in Damascus
Historic statues and cultural objects have been removed from Syria's National Museum in the capital, authorities report.
The robbery was found on the start of the week, when staff reportedly found that a doorway had been damaged from the interior.
The half-dozen stolen sculptures were marble creations and traced back to the ancient Roman times, an authority told the news agency.
Cultural heritage officials said it had opened an investigation to establish the "details surrounding the disappearance of a collection of artifacts", and that actions had been enacted to improve security and observation methods.
The director of national security in the Damascus region, General Osama Atkeh, was referenced by the state-run Sana news agency as stating that authorities were probing the incident, which he said had affected several "archaeological statues and rare collectibles".
He noted that museum protectors at the institution and other persons were being interviewed.
The National Museum, which was established in 1919, houses the significant archaeological collection in Syria.
It contains clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the 14th Century BC from Ugarit, where indications of the earliest writing system was discovered; 1st and 2nd Century AD classical statues from the ancient city, among the foremost historical locations of the ancient world; and a ancient Jewish temple that was constructed at another archaeological site.
The institution was forced to close in the early 2010s, a year after the start of the devastating civil war. The majority of the collection was removed and kept at undisclosed sites to protect them.
It partially resumed in recent years and resumed full operations in early this year, a month after opposition groups removed the Assad regime.
Every one of the country's cultural landmarks were damaged or partially destroyed during the civil war.
The Islamic State group demolished multiple temples and additional edifices at Palmyra, asserting that they were un-Islamic. The cultural organization censured the demolition as a atrocity.
Countless historical objects were also lost or taken from archaeological sites and cultural institutions.
