Syria receives smuggled mosaics from Canada

The Syrian government has recently received 39 very valuable mosaic pieces, which are the first shipment of mosaics confiscated in Canada, into which the pieces entered illegally between the years 1990-1998.

A source at the Syrian directorate for antiquities and museums said the pieces were delivered to Syria following a court sentence in the case raised by the Syrian government in this respect, adding that the remaining pieces will be handed over later to the Syrian authorities.

The source said the confiscated magnificent pieces go back to the Byzantine era and are of various sizes. adding that they were found in July, 1998 upon a warehouse inspection in Montreal.

In a statement to AFP the official at the Canadian Ministry of the Interior, which confiscated the pieces, Richard Boucher, said, "These pieces are very old, dating back to the fifth and sixth centuries and were stolen from religious buildings in northwestern Syria and were intended to be sent to the American market due to their uniqueness."

Montreal is considered the crossroads center for stolen artifacts from all parts of the world to the USA.

In a reception held on Monday that coincided with the inauguration of the first Syrian embassy in Canada, some nine of the stolen mosaics were displayed at Pointe-a-Calliere museum in Montreal all dating back 1,500 years.

The museum could not display a tenth piece because of its heavy weight of 1,361 kg. Most of the 86 smuggled pieces were restored to Syria, after they were seized by the Canadian authorities and by doing so put an end to a very long smuggling trip to an international black market for illicit trade of antiquities.

Antiquities experts and Canadian customs officials say that these pieces were stolen from churches and houses of reverends in ancient patriarchies in northeastern Syria, including the patriarchy of Apamea, the old name of the city of Hama.