Historic Statues Taken from Syria's National Museum Located in Damascus
Historic statues and other artefacts have been removed from the National Museum of Syria in the capital, sources confirm.
The burglary was found on Monday, when employees reportedly found that an entrance had been damaged from the inside.
The multiple missing statues were marble creations and dated back to the ancient Roman times, a source told the news agency.
The nation's antiquities authority said it had opened an investigation to establish the "events surrounding the loss of a number of exhibits", and that measures had been enacted to improve security and monitoring systems.
The director of national security in Damascus province, General Osama Atkeh, was quoted by the state-run Sana news agency as declaring that law enforcement were probing the incident, which he said had targeted several "historical artifacts and valuable objects".
He continued that museum protectors at the institution and other individuals were being interviewed.
The cultural institution, which was established in 1919, houses the most important archaeological collection in Syria.
It includes ancient inscribed tablets tracing back to the ancient era from Ugarit, where indications of the earliest linguistic system was discovered; 1st and 2nd Century AD Greco-Roman sculptures from historical site, one of the most important ancient sites of the ancient world; and a 3rd Century AD synagogue that was built at another archaeological site.
The facility was had to cease operations in 2012, a year after the start of the destructive conflict. The majority of the holdings was transferred and kept at undisclosed sites to protect them.
It reopened partially in 2018 and returned to normal in the beginning of the year, one month after opposition groups removed Syria's former leader.
Each of the six of the country's cultural landmarks were affected or partly ruined during the civil war.
The IS organization blew up several temples and additional edifices at the archaeological site, stating that they were against their beliefs. The cultural organization condemned the damage as a atrocity.
Many cultural items were also damaged or stolen from historical locations and museums.
