Month: January 2019

Yemen’s Loss Of Antiquities Is ‘Robbing Them Of Their Future’

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Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
In Yemen, thousands of civilians have been killed, but in the backdrop of this bloodshed and destruction is another tragedy: the looting of the country’s history. Its precious antiquities plundered by criminals and violent extremists. Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
In Yemen, tens of thousands of children have starved to death in a war led by Saudi Arabia that will soon enter its fourth year. Another 14 million — half the country’s population — are at risk of starvation.

A November 2018 report from Save the Children estimates that 85,000 children under the age of five “have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated.” The United Nations, meanwhile, has said the war in Yemen is the largest and worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Thousands of civilians have been killed, and in the backdrop of this bloodshed and destruction is another tragedy: the looting of the country’s history. Its precious antiquities plundered by criminals and violent extremists.

Deborah Lehr is the founder and chair of the Antiquities Coalition, an organization that works to stop the trafficking of antiquities and preserve cultural heritage. She co-wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post this week with Yemen’s Ambassador to the United States, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, about what the loss of antiquities means for Yemen’s future.

“There’s no question that there’s a humanitarian crisis and it’s very tragic the loss of life and displacement that has taken place, but these items, these symbols really, represent their rich history, their religion and quite honestly, their economic future,” Lehr says. “All of these are being taken away. The robbing of the past is really robbing them of their future.”

Lehr spoke with NPR’s Leila Fadel about what’s happening in Yemen as these antiquities are taken from the country and what she has proposed with the ambassador to stop the loss of Yemen’s history and culture.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview Highlights

On how many antiquities have left Yemen

It’s very hard to quantify because we don’t even have legitimate numbers on the legal trade, but what we can say is that Yemen was a very rich, historic country. It was one of the centers of the spice and incense trade and in fact developed [as] the Manhattan of the desert, as a major trading center, with the first skyscrapers of the 16th century, and one of the first major dams in the 8th century B.C.

All of these have been targeted for destruction and we’re losing significant amounts of what was really very rich history to these thieves. And then with the illicit digging going on, who knows what treasures have been lost. You’ve lost the context, so we may have lost information, for example, that could lead to the proof of the Queen of Sheba and her existence.

On where the antiquities are going

With the illicit trade, what we have tracked is their exit points. They meet with sophisticated middlemen and they’re being bought by collectors and others in major Western markets. Some of it is even showing up in the United States. These monies are going back and being used by the Houthis and other terrorist organizations in the region. We have evidence of al-Qaida raids on some of the museums in Yemen and we have evidence in Europe, even in Brussels, of dealers who have been selling al-Qaida-sponsored antiquities. There’s definite evidence of ISIS benefiting. In a special forces raid of one of the complexes of essentially the person who was the chief financial officer of ISIS, we found receipts of about $5 million worth of antiquities over the course of a year that were sold.

On how she proposes to stop the loss of antiquities

There are international rules that govern how we can actually stop the U.S. from being a target market, but it requires that countries are signatories to a 1970s UNESCO convention for antiquities. Unfortunately, Yemen is not, so we have to be creative in the measures that we take and we also need immediate action because of this crisis going on. What we have proposed is that [the Treasury Department] extend the emergency powers that they have under the Emergency Act and other legal means that they have to stop … already with Yemen they can stop the import of oil — that they expand that to include antiquities because these items are being used to sponsor terrorism.

NPR’s Sarah Handel and Cindy Johnston produced and edited the audio for this interview.

Listen to the interview on NPR.

Congressman Engel Calls on Treasury to Close U.S. Borders to Yemen’s Blood Antiquities

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On January 4, 2019, Representative Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Secretary Mnuchin urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to “use existing authorities to safeguard Yemeni cultural property — and block them from U.S. consumers and markets — by restricting the import of antiquities.” Representative Engel identified these import restrictions as a way to “help prevent terrorist financing and further destruction of irreplaceable antiquities.” This letter is another step in Representative Engel’s proven leadership and track record of fighting terrorist financing and safeguarding cultural heritage, such as his work in 2016 to safeguard Syrian antiquities used by ISIS to fund terror.

Click the image to read the letter.

Representative Engel’s call for action reinforces wider concern for Yemen’s cultural heritage under threat due to civil war and looting. Last week, Deborah Lehr, Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, and Ambassador Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, Yemen’s ambassador to the U.S., wrote an article in the Washington Post that shared Representative Engel’s concerns. In the article, Deborah Lehr and Ambassador Mubarak write that three of Yemen’s major museums, the Taiz National Museum, the Aden National Museum and the National Museum of Zinjibar, “have been pillaged and largely cleared of their collections.” Additionally, Deborah Lehr and Ambassador Mubarak present evidence that  “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants and Houthi rebels are arming their cause with the plunder and sale of Yemen’s ancient treasures.”

The Antiquities Coalition applauds Representative Engel’s dedication to combat the looting of our world’s priceless cultural heritage and fighting terrorism.

The Antiquities Coalition Calls To End the Trade of Yemen’s Blood Antiquities

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The Antiquities Coalition is calling on the United States government to protect our shared heritage and global security by shutting U.S. borders to conflict antiquities from the Middle East. In an oped published by the Washington Post on January 1, AC Chair and Founder Deborah Lehr, joined by Ambassador Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak from the Republic of Yemen, warned that the illicit trade in the country’s cultural heritage is funding Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Houthi rebels, and others. Lehr and Bin Mubarak write:

Among the many tragedies taking place in the nearly four-year conflict in Yemen — including the thousands of lives lost, the impoverishment to near-starvation of its people and the ruin of its fragile economy — is the plunder of the country’s valuable and precious ancient cultural heritage by organized criminals and violent extremists. This all-too-familiar story underscores an urgent need for the U.S. Treasury Department to use its existing sanctions regime to close the U.S. art market to Yemeni blood antiquities.

Historically, Yemen was a meeting ground for some of the earliest contacts and trade between East and West and a crossroads of the ancient incense and spice routes. As home to the legendary Queen of Sheba, stories about the treasures to be found in Yemen’s markets and the independence of its people were passed across generations, along with a famed tradition of silver design. Much of this rich history survived for millennia, as Yemen is home to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and national museums that house priceless artifacts. While media coverage has closely followed the fighting around some of these historic places and collections, it has sadly ignored that this history is being stripped for sale to foreign buyers.

Yemen has warned the United Nations and the world of this illicit trade, presenting evidence that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants and Houthi rebels are taking a page from the Islamic State playbook by arming their cause with the plunder and sale of Yemen’s ancient treasures. Three major museums — the Taiz National Museum, the Aden National Museum and the National Museum of Zinjibar — have been pillaged and largely cleared of their collections. International experts have corroborated these reports, including archaeologists on the ground, the International Council of Museums and the U.N. Panel of Experts on Yemen.

You can read the full oped at the Washington Post here.

The U.S. art market for stolen antiquities from Yemen must be shut down

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Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak as the current permanent representative of Yemen to the United Nations. He is the former permanent representative of Yemen. This version has been updated.


A woman walks through smoke from burning trash in Taiz, Yemen. The Taiz National Museum has been pillaged and largely cleared of its collection. (Lorenzo Tugnoli/For The Washington Post)

By Deborah Lehr and
Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak

January 1

Deborah Lehr is founder and chair of the Antiquities Coalition. Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak is Yemen’s ambassador to the United States and former permanent representative of Yemen to the United Nations.

Among the many tragedies taking place in the nearly four-year conflict in Yemen — including the thousands of lives lost, the impoverishment to near-starvation of its people and the ruin of its fragile economy — is the plunder of the country’s valuable and precious ancient cultural heritage by organized criminals and violent extremists. This all-too-familiar story underscores an urgent need for the U.S. Treasury Department to use its existing sanctions regime to close the U.S. art market to Yemeni blood antiquities.

Historically, Yemen was a meeting ground for some of the earliest contacts and trade between East and West and a crossroads of the ancient incense and spice routes. As home to the legendary Queen of Sheba, stories about the treasures to be found in Yemen’s markets and the independence of its people were passed across generations, along with a famed tradition of silver design. Much of this rich history survived for millennia, as Yemen is home to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and national museums that house priceless artifacts. While media coverage has closely followed the fighting around some of these historic places and collections, it has sadly ignored that this history is being stripped for sale to foreign buyers.

Yemen has warned the United Nations and the world of this illicit trade, presenting evidence that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants and Houthi rebels are taking a page from the Islamic State playbook by arming their cause with the plunder and sale of Yemen’s ancient treasures. Three major museums — the Taiz National Museum, the Aden National Museum and the National Museum of Zinjibar — have been pillaged and largely cleared of their collections. International experts have corroborated these reports, including archaeologists on the ground, the International Council of Museums and the U.N. Panel of Experts on Yemen.

There is good reason to believe that the United States is a destination for pillaged Yemeni artifacts, because it remains the largest art market in the world. Research by the Antiquities Coalition demonstrates that, over the past decade, the United States has imported more than $8 million worth of declared art and antiquities from Yemen. There is reason to suspect that the total is much higher. While it is impossible to know the true scale of the illicit trade, it is distressingly familiar, as plunderers across the region have seen museums and ancient sites as opportunities to raise easy money.

Despite Washington’s growing awareness of the terrorist financing threat from cultural racketeering, U.S. markets remain wide open to conflict antiquities from Yemen. In other countries, the State Department has used available diplomatic tools to negotiate bilateral agreements to close U.S. markets to illegally imported antiquities. Congress has also taken legislative action to sanction efforts to import illicit pieces from Iraq and Syria. But U.S. inaction in Yemen raises the likelihood that American collectors and institutions are helping sustain the country’s violent conflict through apparently legal purchases of stolen artifacts.

The United Nations, with support from the international community including the United States, is engaged in humanitarian efforts and delicate negotiations to bring about a political solution to Yemen’s conflict in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2216 and other established terms of reference. In the meantime, the Treasury Department should use its authorities to issue an emergency executive order adding Yemeni antiquities to the list of sanctioned items prevented from import to the United States. Such action would enjoy broad support in Congress and should be a regular feature of efforts to the end the conflict in Yemen.

The United States is leading the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime around the world, and it also has a proud tradition of safeguarding the world’s cultural treasures during times of conflict. But it can do so much more to help Yemen today. Let’s start by saving its history.

Read the original article on The Washington Post.