A man in California was sentenced to 3 months in jail for smuggling an ancient Roman mosaic from Syria.
In August 2015, Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi brought in ‘ceramic tiles from Turkey’ worth less than $600. However, in reality, he was smuggling a 2,000-year-old ancient Roman mosaic. Alcharihi bought the mosaic from Syria, allegedly paying $12,000 for it. He escaped the airport checks by hiding the mosaic among actual ceramic tiles. After arriving at Port of Long Beach, the consignment containing the mosaic was then delivered to Alcharihi’s home. However, he caught the attention of authorities when he spent $40,000 on the restoration of the mosaic, had it evaluated by a dealer, and then contacted the Getty Museum for a possible sale.
In March 2016, Federal agents raided his house and found the mosaic in his garage. Alcharihi soon confessed to smuggling the mosaic from Syria and lying to customs. The Roman mosaic, later assessed to be worth around $450,000, was confiscated by the authorities and has been with them ever since.
Alcharihi was convicted for entry of falsely classified goods in June 2023. On Thursday, the 57-year-old man was sentenced to 3 months in federal prison. The sentence was given by Judge George Hu of the US District Court for the Central District of California.
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The Roman mosaic, estimated to be 2000 years old, was built during the Roman times. It depicts the Greek story of Hercules rescuing an imprisoned Prometheus. Return of the mosaic to Syria is yet undecided, given the high cases of art loot in the war-torn country.
