Ancient Statues Recently Returned to Yemen Are Now on Loan at the Met
The long-term loan is the latest agreement Yemen has made with a museum in order to protect its cultural heritage amid ongoing civil war
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A collection of ancient stone and bronze sculptures that were recently repatriated from New Zealand to Yemen are now on indefinite loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The 14 ancient sculptures were voluntarily returned to Yemen from the private Hague family collection located in New Zealand, per a statement from the New York City museum. After they were returned, the Republic of Yemen asked the Met if the artifacts could be held, studied and cataloged at the museum until Yemeni officials request they be given back.
This long-term loan comes after Yemen and the Met formalized a partnership in 2023, which allowed the museum to continue to care for and display two ancient stone works that it repatriated to the republic from its own collection. The Met made a similar loan agreement with Nigeria in 2021, as Art News’ Angelica Villa reports.
“While the current situation does not allow for the immediate repatriation of these artifacts to Yemen, we are thankful that they will be preserved and studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,” Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, Yemen’s ambassador to the United States, says in the statement.
The current situation Al-Hadhrami is referring to is the country’s ongoing civil war. Nine years in, the conflict has displaced 4.5 million people and left 21.6 million people—two-thirds of Yemen’s population—in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to a United Nations report.
Yemen has similar agreements with other museums, as Smithsonian magazine’s Christopher Parker reported last year. In 2023, both the Smithsonian Institution and England’s Victoria and Albert Museum agreed to take custody of Yemeni artifact collections.
“This is yet another example of our growing and essential collaboration to safeguard Yemen’s cultural heritage,” Al-Hadhrami’s statement continues.
The latest collection of artifacts on loan to the Met are from the first century B.C.E. through the third century C.E., according to the museum, and likely originate from the Bayhan district of the Shabwa Governorate, a region that includes the ancient city of Timna.
Most of the objects appear to have been created for funerary ceremonies. The collection includes funerary stelae, busts or statues, and features a lot of the translucent golden-yellow calcite alabaster that is commonly found in funerary art of ancient southwestern Arabia.
“The Met is honored to be entrusted with this remarkable collection of objects,” Max Hollein, the museum’s CEO, says in the statement. “This loan represents the Met’s ongoing commitment to international collaboration and to the protection and preservation of artistic and cultural heritage from around the world.”