Beirut: Culture Minister Ghassan Salam© announced that Lebanon will today receive from its Consul General in New York, Talal Daher, a collection of lead coffin fragments linked to the city of Tyre, after the pieces were identified in sales catalogues issued by Arte Primitivo, a company specializing in antiquities.
According to National News Agency - Lebanon, Salam© stated: "As part of its mission to protect Lebanon's cultural and archaeological heritage and combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property, the Ministry of Culture, through the Directorate General of Antiquities, followed up on the whereabouts of the smuggled pieces with the US authorities, including the FBI, and succeeded in securing their recovery."
He noted that the fragments bear distinctive artistic, decorative, and technical characteristics typical of workshops that produced lead coffins in Tyre, which were among the city's active and prolific workshops in antiquity. He added that the panels feature similar mould-made relief decorations, suggesting they may have been produced during the same period and possibly in the same workshop.
Salam© said the pieces closely correspond to examples discovered in an intact Roman hypogeum in the town of Dbbaal, approximately 14 kilometres southeast of Tyre.
He stressed the particular significance of the recovery, noting that the Tyre region, which has recently suffered severe destruction, is exceptionally rich in archaeological heritage. He added that all available indications confirm that the coffin fragments were unearthed in the Tyre area during illegal excavations.
Salam© concluded by stressing that "protecting Lebanese cultural property and combating its smuggling and trafficking are a national responsibility, and every piece illegally removed represents a loss to the national heritage."
He affirmed that "the Ministry of Culture and the Directorate General of Antiquities will not compromise in carrying out their duties and will work to recover any piece proven to have been illegally removed from Lebanon."