Yemen's War Is Erasing Its Past as Looting Spreads

About 477 of the 2,318 archaeological sites documented in Yemen's 2014 Archaeological Atlas have suffered total or partial destruction during the war, said Mohammed Ali Thamer, director general of cultural statistics at the Sanaa-based Ministry of Culture. A renewed Houthi offensive has raised fresh fears for a heritage base battered across twelve years of conflict. Whether the latest fighting has damaged sites or museum collections isn't yet clear.

The Toll on Sites and Museums

Thamer's research for the independent Yemeni think tank the Sanaa Center drew on ministry records, statistical data and the Yemen Data Project. It documented 775 destructive operations affecting cultural sites between 2014, when the civil war began, and 2025. Yemen's Old City of Sanaa, known for its historic tower houses and intricate architecture, faces growing risks from the fighting.

The museums have fared little better. Thamer identified 12 of Yemen's 22 museums as looted or damaged. The Regional Museum in Dhamar, which held about 12,500 objects, was destroyed. Fighting and looting hit museums in Aden, Taiz, Al-Mukalla and Ataq. In Ibb Governorate, looters almost completely stripped Al-Oud, Al-Mashneh, Dhafar and Jibla museums. Authorities confiscated much of the Military Museum's collection in Sanaa.

The research also documented Houthi military use of archaeological locations. The militia seized the ancient city of Baraqish in August 2014 and reportedly planted landmines around its outskirts before withdrawing in early April 2016.

A Trade Fed by a Collapsing State

Nobody knows how many objects have vanished. Comprehensive national statistics on stolen artifacts don't exist, so no one can say where they came from or who profited. Thamer's research describes a new wave of looting during this war, particularly in Marib, Al-Jawf and Shabwa, where people seeking gold and saleable artifacts have targeted ancient tombs. Estimates cited in the research put Yemeni artifacts held abroad at 10,000 to 14,000. Yemen's antiquities authorities listed 8,000 objects they said smugglers took out during the war.

Saleh Al-Baydani, president of the Anaween Center for Research and Transformation Studies in Aden, said collapsing institutions opened the door. "The war has weakened state institutions, fragmented authority, reduced the protection of archaeological sites and museums, and created conditions in which looting and trafficking can flourish," he told Arab News. Illicit trade, he said, was "rarely the work of a single individual or organization." It typically starts with illegal excavation or theft, then passes through local intermediaries and cross-border networks to dealers, auction houses and private collectors abroad.

Al-Baydani said a 2024 report by a UN panel of experts described an investigation into information about an organized smuggling network allegedly backed by the Houthis. "So the concern isn't only about what might happen in the future," he said.

An Ideological Dimension

Al-Baydani also pointed to what he called an ideological problem within the Houthi movement. He cited published lectures by its founder, Hussein Al-Houthi, who criticized Yemenis for celebrating their Sabaean and Himyarite history and dismissed the ancient monuments of Marib as little more than remains of columns. "We are dealing with a group whose founder regarded a significant part of Yemen's historical identity as something to be rejected rather than celebrated," Al-Baydani said.

The Houthis control the Old City of Sanaa, the historic town of Zabid and sites tied to the ancient Kingdom of Saba in Marib. "I am seriously concerned," Al-Baydani said. "Yemen has already lost a great deal of its archaeological heritage during the war, and renewed fighting could expose more historical sites to destruction, looting and smuggling."

In September, Mohammed Jumeh, Yemen's permanent delegate to UNESCO, said the country's heritage properties were "endangered due to the impact of war, which has caused extensive damage to cultural and historical landmarks across the country."

Recovery Is Hard, and Provenance Matters

A case in Washington shows how difficult return can be. In 2023, the US State Department and Yemen's embassy asked the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art to care for 77 seized Yemeni artifacts. "The question was how to return them, given the circumstances in Yemen," museum director Chase Robinson told Arab News. The museum formally repatriated the objects to the Yemeni government, but they remain in its care. They include 65 funerary stelae from northwestern Yemen and 11 pages from a ninth-century Qur'an, hidden behind a photograph in a picture frame and believed to originate from the Great Mosque of Sanaa.

Deputy director Danielle Bennett described one smuggling tactic: "You say they're modern tiles, falsify the documentation and hope the shipment doesn't get opened."

In July, Yemen's General Organization of Antiquities and Museums raised concerns about objects offered at London auctions by Bonhams and Apollo Art Auctions. Neither sold. Bonhams said a South Arabian male head came from a private collection formed in Aden and exported before November 1967, and that it was satisfied the lots were lawfully on the market. Apollo rejected the allegation that it knowingly offered looted antiquities. The allegations didn't establish that the objects were stolen. Al-Baydani cautioned against assigning blame without evidence, but said dealers have "a clear duty to conduct rigorous due diligence" and urged the British Museum and auction houses to publish provenance records.

Why This Matters: Yemen's heritage is disappearing in a war where civilians have far more urgent needs, and that loss compounds their suffering by stripping communities of their history. Archaeological surveys have halted, foreign missions have left, and no coordinated system tracks missing objects. The damage can't even be fully counted. Thamer says a comprehensive register of destroyed sites and smuggled antiquities is needed to support restitution claims. Until fighting subsides and institutions recover, buyers abroad who accept incomplete ownership histories sustain the incentive to loot. Al-Baydani put it plainly: once these objects disappear, "part of our history disappears with them."