On Wednesday, June 21, a federal jury convicted a Los Angeles-area man of smuggling an ancient Roman mosaic into the United States, believed to have been looted from war-torn Syria. Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, 56, was convicted on one count of “entrying falsely classified goods,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said in a press release. He faces a maximum of two years in prison.
The FBI seized the 15-foot-long, 2,000-pound mosaic, which depicts the myth of Hercules saving Prometheus, from Alcharihi’s Palmdale residence in 2016, less than a year after shipping it in a container from Turkey to the United States. loaded in 2020 for lying about the value of its contents, falsely telling its customs broker that it was importing ceramic tiles worth less than $600, officials said. The mosaic, believed to date from two millennia ago, is believed to have been created in Idlib province, the rebel-held region in northwestern Syria that has seen destruction and looting generalized. Since it was seized from Alcharihi’s garage, it has been stored in a secure facility in Los Angeles.
During the five day trial, Alcharihi’s lawyer argued that his client had in fact purchased a modern counterfeit of the mosaic and imported it “as trash”. He later revealed he bought the antique in 2015 for around $12,000. Text messages from early 2015 between him and an associate, a Syrian living in Saudi Arabia, also indicate that the couple thought it might be worth $1 million, according to Courthouse News. The two men also mentioned the falsification of the provenance of the work.
“The false classifications occurred months after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria, in particular by the terrorist organizations Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Front Al -Nosra. the U.S. attorney’s office said.
In California, Alcharichi paid $40,000 to have the mosaic restored, borrowing money from friends and family. His communications and actions suggest he was acting intentionally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew O’Brien said in closing argument. “The defendant believed in the scheme,” he said, Courthouse News reported. “He was convinced that he would become rich from it.” The US government appraiser valued the mosaic at $450,000.
Alcharichi was released on bail pending sentencing, which U.S. District Judge George H. Wu has scheduled for August 31.
