The artifacts include 65 funerary stelae, or carved stones, from northwest Yemen, dated to the second half of the first millennium B.C., a bronze bowl, and 11 folios from early Qurans.They were seized from a New York art dealer more than a decade ago. Since then, they have been held in storage, and the new partnership, the first return of cultural objects by the U.S. government to Yemen in almost 20 years, means some could soon emerge from the darkness of storage and be exhibited.

The New York Times

These artefacts had been looted before the war. One can only vaguely imagine the scale of theft following the brutal Saudi-led coalition war on Yemen. In the absence of government protection of cultural goods
immense numbers of Yemeni cultural treasure have been pilfered and moved out of the country to be sold and displayed on Western art auctions and museums.