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France returns stolen statue: Louvre to Libya

A statue that dates back 2,400 years has been returned to Libya by France, more than ten years after it was taken from the North African nation and housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The monument landed at Mitiga Airport in Tripoli , according to the Libyan Administrative Control Authority. Abdullah Gaderbou, the chairman of the Authority, gave it to Ali Shalak, the head of the Antiquities Department.

Theft and looting in 2011

After being taken during the 2011 Arab upheavals, a 4th century BC sculpture from the Louvre in Paris has been returned to Libya. The memorial monument, which honored an unidentified individual buried there, had been unlawfully transported from Shahhat, in northeastern Libya, and had been kept in the renowned museum in the capital of France since 2016. According to the Libyan National Museum, the headless bust is from a time when that region of present-day Libya was a part of the Ptolemaic empire, an ancient Greek state established by one of Alexander the Great’s generals who governed Egypt. 

After arriving at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport, the 56-cm statue was given to Ali Shalak, the head of the Antiquities Department, by Abdullah Gaderbou, the chairman of the Administrative Control Authority. The bust will be returned, as agreed upon in October. Mr. Gaderbou picked it up last week while on an official visit to Paris, and he placed it in a unique wooden container to be sent back to Libya.

Cultural heritage and illicit trafficking

The National Museum posted a statement on its Facebook page stating, “We thank everyone who contributed to the return of this piece to its homeland, affirming our commitment to protecting and restoring our cultural heritage.” Although Libya has a rich archeological past, some of its historic artifacts have been looted. 

The ancient city of Cyrene, which dates back to the seventh century BC, is located on the location of the contemporary city of Shahhat in the Cyrenaica area. In 1982, the region was included in the Unesco World Heritage List. In 2022, American prosecutors and law enforcement officials declared that a different marble statue known as Veiled Head of a Female, which had been smuggled out of the region, had returned to Libya. After a thorough inquiry, it was determined that the antique, which was from a tomb in Cyrene, was purchased by New York millionaire Michael H. Steinhardt in 2000 for $1.2 million.

International efforts for restitution

Conflicts over antiquated relics go back to the time when Europeans first arrived in the area, despite the fact that looting of artifacts increased during the civil conflict that followed the overthrow of former Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi. The Leptis Magna remains, which Libya claims the British stole in the 19th century, are the subject of a dispute between the UK’s Crown Estate and Libya. The United Kingdom claims to “understand” that they were presents from the Prince Regent, the erstwhile ruler of the Tripolitania coastal area, in 1817, and has thus far rejected all requests to return them. When Storm Daniel hit the area at the end of the previous year, it destroyed two significant dams and flooded a vast area. In addition to causing 40,000 people to be displaced and 4,300 deaths, the floods in Libya also caused damage to ancient monuments.

Louvre museum’s role

There has been much debate about whether or not to repatriate ancient artifacts housed in US and European museums. In 2021, Libya received back a 2,000-year-old burial figure of the Greek goddess Persephone, which had been seized from Cyrene in 2011 and transported to the UK. But Berlin’s Neues Museum is resisting requests to send the ancient Queen Nefertiti bust to Egypt. In the meantime, the long-simmering diplomatic dispute between Greece and the UK about the Elgin Marbles still flares up from time to time. 

At the conclusion of the previous year, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were scheduled to meet to talk about the Parthenon statues. However, he called off the meeting the day after Mr. Mitsotakis reiterated requests for the statues to be returned to the Greek capital, saying that holding some marbles in London and the rest in Athens was “like cutting the Mona Lisa in half.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, Joseph Ringli, the Swiss Ambassador to Libya, sent over a list of objects, including North African antiques that had been confiscated in Switzerland, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Libya.

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