Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
Yemen extended the right to host 80 Yemeni artifacts to the National Museum of Asian Arts at the Smithsonian Institution, as a “temporary loan” for two additional years.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington stated that Ambassador Muhammad Al-Hadhrami signed an agreement with the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, Dr. Chase Robinson, to extend the temporary loan of 80 Yemeni artifacts for two additional years after they were deposited in the museum in 2023.
On Friday, the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Muammar Al-Iryani, discussed strengthening cooperation in protecting Yemeni cultural heritage, combating antiquities smuggling, and organizing cultural events in the US.
This came during meetings held by the Minister at the US Department of State, with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau (NEA) to discuss areas of cooperation in heritage protection and cultural exchange, according to the official Yemeni news agency.
Al-Iryani expressed his thanks to the US government for its efforts in recovering looted Yemeni artifacts, after his visit to the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art, and displayed some Yemeni artifacts that the US authorities seized and returned to the Yemeni government, and are now displayed in the museum under a joint cooperation agreement.
For her part, Zinya Pagani, Deputy Director of Public Diplomacy at (NEA), affirmed her keenness to strengthen cooperation with the Yemeni government in the fields of culture and education, noting her previous experience in supporting Yemen during her work at the US Embassy.
Glenn Davis, Director of the Cultural Heritage Center at (ECA), praised the success of the project to restore the Cairo Citadel in Yemen with the support of the US government, stressing the importance of developing a clear action plan to implement the cultural property protection agreement signed between the two countries.
Al-Iryani announced the launch of a new educational program to bring Yemeni teachers to teach Arabic in the US, in addition to providing short-term scholarships for Yemeni students and academics.
