Lebanon's national museum on Friday (February 2nd) unveiled five ancient sculptures that were looted during the civil war, AFP reported.
"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 years from 1975 to 1990.
The five statues were stolen from a storeroom in Byblos and later surfaced "on the international antiquity market", the culture ministry said in a statement.
They were repatriated over the past two months.
The five pieces had been discovered on the Phoenician site of Eshmun, near Sidon, during excavations carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.
Among them is a 4th century BCE Phoenician bull's head, which was spotted after it had been loaned to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met).
The bull's head had been exhibited at the Met and was spotted as part of a drive by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has made it a priority to track stolen artwork.
The repatriation of the Lebanese sculptures capped months of co-operation between Beirut and the US authorities.
