Yemeni archaeology expert Abdullah Mohsen revealed that an ancient Yemeni statue will be auctioned at the famous Apollo auction house in London next month.
“The artifact is a marble statue from the third century BC, originating from Qataban in Yemen. It depicts a standing figure wearing a hat and a long, tight jacket, set on a three-layered base. The upper two layers feature the owner’s name inscribed in Musnad script,” Mohsen described.
The statue is scheduled to be sold at the Ancient and Militaria Auction by Apollo Auctions in London on July 13th.
Mohsen noted that the statue was part of a private English collection in Shropshire, previously owned by an antiquities collector in London. Details on how the collector acquired the statue remain unknown.
He also mentioned that the statue had been removed from the database of lost artworks and is accompanied by a historical report from Alessandro Neri, an expert in international cultural heritage based in Florence, Italy.
“It is unclear which entity initially added it to the database, the largest in the world for stolen artworks,” he added.
Since the start of the US-Saudi-Emirati aggression on Yemen in 2015, rare Yemeni historical artifacts have been subjected to theft, looting, and smuggling abroad.
