Four ancient carved funerary stones are being looked after by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, after police recovered them from an east London shop. Dating back to the second half of the first millennium BCE, the stelae come from travel a Yemen necropoli that has been subject to recent looting. The stelae were first spotted by a concerned archaeology novice in an interior design store in east London. Following a police investigation, the seller disclaimed the objects and requested their return to Yemen. The artifacts were recovered by the city police’s art and antiquities unit. Related Articles In a historic agreement with Yemen, the V&A will temporarily research and conserve the stones until it is safe to return them. They will be on view at V&A East Storehouse as part of the show “Culture in Crisis” through 2025. On Tuesday, the agreement was signed by the V&A’s director Tristram Hunt and the ambassador for Yemen in the UK Yassin Saeed Noman. “This is a historic agreement that will give the public the chance to appreciate these exceptional examples of Yemeni culture and creativity, before the objects are repatriated, and shine a light on how the V&A’s Culture in Crisis programme helps curtail the illegal trade of looted objects and the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide,” Hunt told the Guardian . Given the ongoing Yemeni civil war, the stelae are of the kind that are on the International Council of Museum’s emergency red list of cultural objects at risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment