US returns 36 Syrian antiquities worth $5M, including a Palmyra relief and 14 mosaics

The collection also includes 14 mosaics taken from a Roman villa in Syria. Among the other notable pieces is a third-century BCE mosaic section portraying the mythological wedding of Telete and Eros, created from hundreds of tiny pieces of colored stone known as tesserae. Ancient pieces of Syrian history that had traveled far from their original landscapes are now making the journey back home. US authorities have returned 36 antiquities to Syria, a collection worth more than $5 million that includes a monumental relief from Palmyra, Roman-era mosaics and objects recovered from major private and institutional collections, states a report by Arab News. The repatriation, announced September 23, marks another major effort to trace and recover cultural objects that entered the international art market through illicit trafficking.A collection spanning centuriesAccording to Arab News, among the returned objects is a massive limestone relief from ancient Palmyra. The funerary sculpture dates to the late second century CE and depicts a reclining man surrounded by a woman and three children. Weighing more than 1,000 pounds, the relief originally formed part of a Palmyrene tomb. Investigators...