Feb 2, 2018

Lebanon's national museum on Friday unveiled five ancient sculptures, including a Phoenician bull's head returned by the United States, that were looted during the civil war.

The life-size 4th century BC white marble bull's head, the star artefact among the works that were all looted in 1981, had been loaned to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met).

The five pieces were discovered on the Phoenician site of Eshmun, near the southern port city of Sidon, during excavations carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.

"We are committed, as much as we can, to repatriating pieces stolen during the war," Lebanese Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury said during a ceremony at the National Museum of Beirut.

Lebanon's civil war lasted 15 ye