14 rare Yemeni artifacts set to go on auction in London
LONDON, Aug. 30 (YPA) – Fourteen rare Yemeni artifacts are set to be offered for sale at Apollo Art Auctions in the British capital, London, during September and October, according to Yemeni researcher Abdullah Mohsen, who specializes in tracking the country’s antiquities.
Mohsen said the collection includes historical artifacts dating from the third millennium BC through the final centuries BC. The pieces include alabaster statues of bulls and human heads, a marble incense burner shaped like an ibex, gold jewelry, a stone vessel dating to between 2600 and 2000 BC, as well as a funerary statue and rare bronze artifacts.
According to Mohsen, the auction house claims that the artifacts are accompanied by certificates of authenticity from the “Art Loss Register.” He warned, however, that such documentation does not legitimize the true provenance of the artifacts or rule out the possibility that they were removed from Yemen through organized smuggling networks that exploit gaps in documentation and time to launder antiquities before placing them on the international market.
He criticized reliance on statements and media appeals alone, calling for concrete action through legal proceedings and international channels to recover looted Yemeni antiquities. He stressed that recovering even a single artifact would represent a tangible step toward protecting Yemen’s national heritage, rather than relying solely on continued media attention.
Yemen possesses a vast and valuable archaeological heritage, much of which has been subjected to repeated damage, looting, concealment and smuggling during the years of conflict. Some of the artifacts are believed to date back nearly 5,000 years.
The artifacts are scattered across museums, archaeological sites and historic cities, while some are also held in private residences.
Yemeni researchers have stressed that these antiquities belong to the Yemeni people as a whole and should be preserved in designated museums and heritage institutions.
A U.S. researcher specializing in archaeology has also alleged that the UAE has been involved in the theft and smuggling of Yemeni antiquities for sale to foreign countries, including the United States.
Researcher Alexander Nagel claimed that more than one million artifacts are stolen periodically, alleging that some antiquities dealers posed as researchers, scholars and archaeologists to facilitate the removal of artifacts documenting Yemen’s history.
Nagel further alleged that some artifacts were smuggled through countries including the UAE and Israel occupation before reaching the United States, and claimed that a number of explorers, academics and diplomats were involved in the trafficking of Yemeni antiquities.