BEIRUT: The US is handing back to Lebanon ancient Roman-era decorative lead sarcophagus fragments that were looted from the southern city of Tyre and recovered after an FBI investigation, the US Embassy in Lebanon said on Thursday.

The recovery “reflects the strong US-Lebanon partnership in the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property,” the embassy said.

Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame said: “The fragments bear distinctive artistic, decorative and technical characteristics typical of workshops that produced lead sarcophagi in Tyre, which were among the city’s active and prolific workshops in antiquity.”

The FBI said the antiquities “were stolen from illicit excavations in or around Tyre and were exported outside of Lebanon’s borders.

The trade in looted antiquities is widespread in the Middle East. New York, one of the world’s art capitals, is home to many wealthy collectors, galleries, and auction houses.

In December 2017, three ancient artifacts were returned to Lebanon, including a Greek bull’s head valued at $1.2 million that had been exhibited at the Met Gala.

Tyre was “exceptionally rich in archaeological heritage” but had suffered severe destruction recently from Israeli airstrikes, Salame said. UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, added Tyre to its World Heritage in Danger list in July.

The first archaeological excavations in Lebanon were carried out by French philosopher Ernest Renan in the 1860s. He found a floor mosaic at Qabr Hiram near Tyre, which was the first work of art from Lebanon to be shipped to France.

In 1932 the Louvre in Paris acquired a preserved lead sarcophagus with an elaborate decoration based on architectural elements framing sphinxes and Gorgons.

Lead sarcophagi have survived in considerable numbers and are found in both eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire.