🔗 Share this article

Valuable artifacts and other artefacts have been taken from the National Museum of Syria in the capital, officials say.

The robbery was noticed on the start of the week, when museum workers allegedly found that one of the museum's doors had been forced from the interior.

The multiple missing sculptures were made of marble and traced back to the Roman era, one official informed the news agency.

Cultural heritage officials said it had opened an investigation to establish the "events surrounding the theft of a collection of items", and that actions had been taken to strengthen safeguarding and monitoring systems.

The head of internal security in Damascus province, General Osama Atkeh, was cited by the state-run Sana news agency as saying that security forces were investigating the robbery, which he said had affected several "ancient sculptures and rare collectibles".

He continued that museum protectors at the facility and other individuals were being interrogated.

The Damascus Museum, which was created in 1919, houses the primary cultural treasures in Syria.

It includes clay cuneiform tablets originating to the 14th Century BC from historical site, where indications of the earliest complete alphabet was found; 1st and 2nd Century AD Greco-Roman sculptures from historical site, a significant historical locations of the historical period; and a third century religious building that was built at another archaeological site.

The facility was had to cease operations in 2012, twelve months after the start of the internal strife. The majority of the holdings was transferred and kept at secret locations to ensure their safety.

It partially resumed in 2018 and resumed full operations in early this year, one month after insurgents deposed the Assad regime.

All six of Syria's Unesco World Heritage sites were harmed or significantly impacted during the conflict.

The Islamic State group destroyed several temples and other structures at the archaeological site, stating that they were against their beliefs. The cultural organization denounced the damage as a atrocity.

Countless historical objects were also lost or stolen from archaeological sites and collections.