U.S. returns Yemeni artifacts stolen from Shabwa

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says New York will return three artifacts worth $725,<> to the Yemeni people as part of a criminal investigation into a Manhattan-based collector.

The artifacts include a fifth-century BCE alabaster ram looted during Yemen's civil war in 1994. The pieces were confiscated from Shelby White's Manhattan apartment, a member of the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Bragg said the investigation into White's case by the Manhattan Antiquities Trafficking Unit "allowed dozens of artifacts looted from their home countries to return home... "These are just three of the nearly 1000,<> artifacts we have repatriated over the past sixteen months."

He thanked Attorney General Shelby's office for its cooperation in the investigation.

In December, Art Newspaper reported that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office had seized $24 million worth of antiquities from White's apartment.

The Yemeni objects are temporarily on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington so that Yemeni authorities can safely retrieve them.