France returns 23 Syrian treasures during Macron's landmark Damascus visit

Damascus,UPDATED: Jul 9, 2026 22:08 IST

France has returned 23 Syrian archaeological treasures that had remained in the country for about 15 years after being loaned for an exhibition, in a move that coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Damascus. The visit was the first by a major Western leader since Bashar Assad was ousted in late 2024.

The artefacts were flown on Macron's presidential aircraft on Tuesday and handed back to Syria's Museum. They include Roman bronze objects, Byzantine and Islamic-era pieces, and a richly coloured mosaic panel that once adorned the Umayyad Mosque. The collection had been loaned in 2011 for an exhibition of Syrian antiquities at the Arab World Institute in Paris.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said the artefacts belonged to museums in Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia and Palmyra, and remained in France after diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed under Assad's rule. It said France was the first country to cooperate with Syria under a national campaign to recover antiquities held abroad.

At the opening of an exhibition at the Museum in Damascus featuring two of the returned pieces, Ayman al-Nabo, deputy director-general of Syria's Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, said, "Today we are unveiling a selection of archaeological artifacts that have been returned to Syria."

At the museum, curator Nivine Saadeddine said the returned collection covered some of the most important periods of Syrian civilisation. "They date from the ninth millennium BC to the 14th and 15th centuries AD. Every object represents a distinct chapter in Syria's history," she said.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's former director-general of antiquities and museums, said the return closed a chapter that had stretched across years of war, diplomatic isolation and failed attempts to retrieve the collection. Now a professor of archaeology at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, he said the loan had been made as part of normal cultural cooperation before the conflict.

Abdulkarim said he formally requested the return of the artefacts in 2014 but received no response. He said French officials later told Syrian authorities they could not communicate with representatives of Assad's government, which had become internationally isolated and faced broad sanctions after the crackdown on anti-government protests and the civil war that followed. He said UNESCO's Beirut office later tried to mediate, but that effort also failed.

The dispute also had personal consequences, Abdulkarim said. "We were interrogated by Bashar Assad's security forces," he said. "We were beaten and accused of being too lenient in protecting Syria's antiquities. Had it not been for the correspondence we had sent to the institute proving we had repeatedly requested the artifacts' return, we could have been imprisoned."

Despite that, Abdulkarim welcomed the renewed cultural cooperation. "I am very happy that, despite everything that happened, the war is over, Syria is reopening to the world and cultural exchange is returning," he said.

He said Syrian artefacts had previously been repatriated under formal loan agreements despite the war and the break in ties. Around 2017, Italy returned two pieces that had been damaged by the Islamic State group after restoring them for an exhibition in Rome on the destruction of cultural heritage, he said. Other artefacts remain in Japan under a longstanding archaeological cooperation agreement linked to excavations carried out there in the 1980s.

Abdulkarim said thousands of Syrian artefacts looted from archaeological sites during the war were still scattered around the world. "Recovering them will require years of diplomatic work," he said. He added that the return from France sent "a positive message for the future" and could help encourage further international cooperation to recover Syria's stolen heritage.

Syria's cultural heritage suffered heavy damage during the country's nearly 14-year conflict. Ancient cities, including the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra, were badly damaged, while landmarks such as the medieval Crusader fortress of Crac des Chevaliers still bear scars from years of fighting. Islamic State militants also destroyed temples, tombs and monumental sculptures in Palmyra, while trafficked antiquities became a source of revenue for armed groups. The return of the 23 pieces from France marks a fresh step in Syria's effort to recover artefacts taken abroad and restore cultural links.

With PTI Inputs

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