Houthi Offensive Puts Yemen's Ancient Heritage at Risk

A UN panel of experts said in a 2024 report that it was investigating information about an organized smuggling network allegedly backed by the Houthis, through which Yemeni artifacts were sold abroad. That finding now hangs over a renewed Houthi offensive, as heritage specialists fear it will deepen the damage to a country whose antiquities have faced stripping, smuggling and sale for more than a decade.

The effects of the latest fighting on archaeological sites and museum collections weren't established as of this report. But the conditions for loss are well documented.

The Security Picture

Mohammed Ali Thamer, director general of cultural statistics at the Sanaa-based Ministry of Culture, estimated that about 477 of the 2,318 archaeological sites documented by Yemen's Archaeological Atlas in 2014 have suffered total or partial destruction during the war. His research for the independent Yemeni think tank the Sanaa Center documented 775 destructive operations affecting cultural sites between 2014, when the civil war began, and 2025. That's twelve years elapsed since the war's start.

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

The Houthis control several important sites, including the Old City of Sanaa, the historic town of Zabid and sites associated with the ancient Kingdom of Saba in Marib. Saleh Al-Baydani, president of the Anaween Center for Research and Transformation Studies in Aden, said renewed fighting could put more of that heritage at risk. "I am seriously concerned," he 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."

Al-Baydani also pointed to an ideological problem within the movement. He cited published lectures by Hussein Al-Houthi, the Houthi founder, who criticized Yemenis for celebrating their Sabaean and Himyarite history. Al-Houthi dismissed the ancient monuments of Marib as little more than remains of columns and described the promotion of pre-Islamic civilizations as an attempt to draw Yemenis back to their pre-Islamic past. "I think this tells us a great deal about the ideological foundations of the movement," Al-Baydani said. "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."

A Looted Mix of Museums and Tombs

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, museums at Al-Oud, Al-Mashneh, Dhafar and Jibla were almost completely looted. Much of the collection at the Military Museum in Sanaa was confiscated.

Tombs have also come under attack. Thamer's research describes a new wave of looting during the current war, particularly in Marib, Al-Jawf and Shabwa, where people sought gold and saleable artifacts. 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 were smuggled out during the war. No comprehensive national statistics exist, so nobody can say precisely what vanished or who profited.

Al-Baydani explained how the trade works. "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 was "rarely the work of a single individual or organization," he said. Objects move from illegal digs or thefts through local intermediaries and cross-border networks to dealers, auction houses and private collectors. "Such networks may also benefit from corruption, political influence or the protection of armed actors operating within the wider war economy."

The Market Abroad

In July, Yemen's General Organization of Antiquities and Museums raised concerns about objects offered at London auctions by Bonhams and Apollo Art Auctions. Bonhams offered a South Arabian alabaster head of a woman, about 2,000 years old, estimated at £5,000 to £8,000 ($6,700-$10,600), and a large South Arabian male head valued at £20,000 to £30,000. Neither sold.

Bonhams said the male head came from a private collection formed in Aden and exported before November 1967, when the British withdrew from the territory. The auction house said it had reviewed provenance and was satisfied the lots were lawfully on the market. Apollo Art Auctions rejected the allegation that it knowingly offered looted antiquities, citing due-diligence procedures and screening against the Art Loss Register. The allegations didn't establish that the objects were stolen.

Recovery takes time, even when officials catch objects. 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, among them 65 funerary stelae and 11 pages from a ninth-century Qur'an. Someone hid the pages behind a photograph in a picture frame; they are believed to have come from the Great Mosque of Sanaa. Museum director Chase Robinson said the question was how to return the pieces "given the circumstances in Yemen." The objects were formally repatriated to the Yemeni government but remain at the museum.

What Comes Next

Archaeological surveys in Yemen have stopped, foreign missions have left, and the country lacks a coordinated system to protect sites or track missing objects. Thamer said Yemen needs a comprehensive register of destroyed sites and smuggled antiquities to support restitution claims. Al-Baydani urged dealers to demonstrate a credible chain of ownership and called on the British Museum and auction houses to publish provenance records. "Buyers willing to acquire objects with uncertain provenance, and intermediaries prepared to accept incomplete ownership histories, help sustain the financial incentive for further looting," he said.

Why This Matters: Yemen's heritage losses are a byproduct of an armed movement operating outside any accountable state structure, with a UN panel investigating allegations that it profits from the antiquities trade. Houthi control of Sanaa, Zabid and the Saba sites in Marib puts irreplaceable material in the hands of a group whose founder dismissed Yemen's pre-Islamic past. The same fragmented authority that lets looting flourish also allows armed networks to fund themselves through the war economy. From a security standpoint, trafficking routes and corrupt intermediaries are hard to separate from the militia infrastructure sustaining the fighting. Without a functioning state to document and protect what remains, restitution claims depend on records that may never be reconstructed.