🔗 Share this article Valuable Artifacts Taken from the National Museum in Damascus The National Museum reopened fully in January of this year, one month after the deposition of Syria's former leader. Valuable sculptures and cultural objects have been removed from the National Museum of Syria in Damascus, officials say. The theft was found on the start of the week, when employees apparently found that an entrance had been broken from the inside. The multiple missing statues were crafted from marble and traced back to the Roman period, one official informed the Associated Press. Cultural heritage officials said it had initiated an inquiry to establish the "circumstances surrounding the loss of a collection of items", and that steps had been enacted to improve security and surveillance. The chief of internal security in the capital area, General Osama Atkeh, was quoted by the state-run Sana news agency as saying that law enforcement were investigating the incident, which he said had affected several "historical artifacts and valuable objects". He noted that museum protectors at the institution and other persons were being interrogated. The Damascus Museum, which was established in the early twentieth century, houses the primary historical artifacts in Syria. It includes clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the ancient era from an ancient city, where evidence of the earliest linguistic system was uncovered; 1st and 2nd Century AD Greco-Roman sculptures from the ancient city, among the foremost historical locations of the classical era; and a 3rd Century AD synagogue that was built at an ancient location. The institution was forced to close in the early 2010s, one year after the start of the internal strife. Most of the artifacts was transferred and kept at secure places to safeguard them. It reopened partially in recent years and resumed full operations in the beginning of the year, one month after insurgents deposed President Bashar al-Assad. Every one of the country's cultural landmarks were harmed or partially destroyed during the internal struggle. The IS organization destroyed several temples and other structures at the archaeological site, claiming that they were un-Islamic. Unesco denounced the damage as a atrocity. Numerous historical objects were also destroyed or stolen from historical locations and museums.