UAE is involved in smuggling antiquities from Yemen, trading them abroad: Researcher

The Yemeni researcher specializing in tracking Yemeni looted antiquities, Abdullah Mohsen, has confirmed the UAE’s involvement in smuggling Yemeni antiquities and trading them abroad.

The researcher, Mohsen, explained in a post on the “Facebook” platform that one of those smuggled Yemeni antiquities was an antiquity, a funeral headstone, which was smuggled from one of the Yemeni provinces and sold abroad.

He pointed out that the smuggling journey began from Jawf province to the “art market” in the UAE, to the United States of America, and then to Israel.

Before the Second Gulf War, in the year 1990 AD, a limestone funerary headstone dating back to the fifth-third century BC, from the antiquities of Yemen in Jawf, “the state of Ma’een”, was displayed in Abu Dhabi without auction,” Mohsen said. This is confirmed by the Christie’s New York website, which identified the source of the piece as the UAE art market.”

He pointed out that Christie’s auction on December 7, 2011 AD sold the antiquity, and it recently appeared in the Yemen exhibition (From Sheba to Jerusalem) held by the Museum of the Bible Countries in the city of Jerusalem on May 22, 2021 AD.

It is worth noting that American and French auctions topped the list of “exhibitions” selling looted Yemeni antiquities in recent years, in light of accusations directed at the Saudi-led coalition and the “government” loyal to it of being behind networks of looting and smuggling Yemen’s history and heritage.