US claims Syrian and Iraqi artefacts looted by ISIL to prevent their sale
Four relics are the first that can be clearly identified
WASHINGTON // The United States filed a lawsuit on Thursday to recover an ancient serpentine ring and gold coins trafficked by ISIL and prevent stolen Syrian and Iraqi antiquities from disappearing into collectors’ hands.
A US attorney filed a forfeiture claim in the court for the district of Columbia against the antiquities, thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
Officials have not said where the treasures might be, but the action aimed to warn prospective collectors that any pur- chase they might make could be contested. The antiquities – including a neo-Assyrian stele, an ornamental slab often used for funerary or commemorative purposes – were identified from phone pictures and other electronic media seized from ISIL commander Abu Sayyaf, who was killed in a US raid in eastern Syria in May last year.
Abu Sayyaf was in charge of raising money for ISIL, selling or taxing looted artefacts from the region, which is rich in cultural antiquities.
The extremist group is believed to have raked in several million dollars from the lucrative trade, the US state department said last year.
US authorities recovered extensive records of the trade in the raid, including pictures, documentation of taxes collected and sales struck. There was even a claim by traders who said an ISIL official cheated them out of some valuable items.
Assistant US attorney Arvind Lal said the four items named in the lawsuit, the first of its kind, were the first that could be clearly identified and described for use in a legal action.
“When the raid was conducted on Abu Sayyaf, the United States collected a lot of electronic media, like mobile phones,” he said.
“There were many, many images on that electronic media” of ancient artefacts.
In the lawsuit, the US formally lays claim to the items based on US sanctions against ISIL as a foreign terrorist group.
The aim was to put the global antiquities trade on notice that anyone who buys them would not have legal title to them, Mr Lal said. He would not say if the US knows where the items are – a gold ring with a serpentine cameo face of the Greek goddess Tyche from 330- 400 AD, second-century Roman coins featuring Antoninus Pius and emperor Hadrian Augustus Caesar, and a cuneiform stele possibly dating from the 9th-century BC.
Mr Lal said the aim was not for the US to take permanent control of the items but to return them to the authorities who are the rightful owners.
“Antiquities seized in the Abu Sayyaf raid were handed over to Iraq,” he said.