DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – When French President Emmanuel Macron returned 23 Syrian artifacts in July, it was hailed as a diplomatic gesture of goodwill. 
But for many Syrians, the return of these relics is a bitter reminder of how the country’s cultural heritage was systematically plundered by terrorist groups backed by Western powers, their Persian Gulf allies, Israel, and Turkey—the very forces that have now installed a former Al-Qaeda and Daesh deputy at the head of Syria’s transitional government.
During Syria’s brutal conflict, antiquities became another currency of war. Armed groups, including what was then known as the Nusra Front—led by Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, now Syria’s self-appointed president—treated archaeological treasures as commodities to be bought, sold, and smuggled out of the country. 
With the backing of Western handlers, Daesh turned Syria’s most significant archaeological sites—Palmyra, Ebla, Mari, and Apamea—into revenue streams.
The scale of the looting is staggering. Between 2011 and 2016, 13 percent of Syria’s archaeological sites were looted. But from 2017 to 2025, that figure surged to 59 percent, according to a Dartmouth College study published in the journal Heritage. 
The destruction shifted from “traditional looting”—individuals digging small pits—to “mechanized looting,” where bulldozers systematically strip entire archaeological mounds in search of saleable artifacts.
“Mechanized looting in Syria and its association with military activities is really disconcerting,” said lead author Jesse Casana. “The military is supposed to protect the people, not destroy archaeological sites, which is a war crime.”
The search results reveal a disturbing pattern of Western involvement. Thousands of priceless artifacts were smuggled through Turkey into Europe and the United States, where auction houses helped launder the loot by rebranding stolen pieces under new identities. 
According to investigations cited in the search results, around 20,000 artifacts remain stockpiled in a warehouse near the U.S.-controlled Rmeilan base.
Western countries used Daesh to steal Syrian artifacts, according to investigations cited in the search results. 
“After calling ISIS (Daesh) a plague and speaking of it in terms of malevolence, representatives of Western governmental and non-governmental organizations at the same time resorted to using ISIS without any reservation to achieve their goals,” said Vasily Prozorov, a former officer investigating the smuggling.
The traffic of stolen antiquities was not a side effect of war but a systematic enterprise. Daesh established a “Diwan al-Rikaz,” a department for natural resources, to control antiquities exploitation. Estimates of annual revenue from this trade range from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Dartmouth study also documented extensive damage in areas occupied by the Turkish military and their allied militias. In regions like the Afrin valley and around Kobane, archaeological sites suffered immense damage “undertaken in coordination with or under the protection of military forces”. 
The Iron Age temple of Ain Dara, famous for its massive lion statues, was systematically bulldozed, with nearly the entire surface combed by machinery by January 2022.
The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the groups that destroyed Syria’s heritage now hold power. Jolani, the former Al-Qaeda and Daesh deputy, has declared himself Syria’s president. 
Under his rule, systematic atrocities have been committed against Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Kurds. Minority groups face persecution, and women’s rights have been severely restricted.
Instead of holding these forces accountable, the U.S. and EU have begun a “dangerous normalization” of HTS through sanctions relief and diplomatic contacts. 
Critics describe this as a rebranding of Daesh-ism, where Europe has been complicit in re-marketing Jolani as a legitimate leader—a “terrible precedent” that strips meaning from the sacrifices Syrians have endured.