California man convicted for smuggling Byzantine-era Hercules mosaic from Syria

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — A California man has been convicted for illegally importing an ancient floor mosaic, believed to have been made in modern-day Syria nearly two thousand years ago and valued at almost half a million dollars.

Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, 56, was found guilty on one count of entry of false classified goods on June 21st, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office

Alcharihi made a “false classification” about the massive mosaic’s “value and quality,” federal prosecutors said in the release. The ancient artwork arrived at the port in Long Beach as part of a shipment from Turkey in August 2015.

The mosaic, thought to date back to the Byzantine era of the Roman empire, shows a mythological scene: Hercules rescuing Prometheus, who was chained to a rock by other gods for stealing fire.

Alcharihi only paid about $12,000 for the antiquity, which an appraisal expert valued at $450,000, according to the US Attorney’s Office. When he brought the artwork into the US, he lied and declared that he was importing ceramic tiles from Turkey with a value of less than $600, prosecutors said.

The mosaic weighs a whopping 2,000 pounds and is about 15-feet long and 8-feet tall, according to the release. The piece was hidden in a shipping container behind a pile of vases and then shipped via truck to Alcharihi’s home after passing through customs.

It has been stored at a Los Angeles facility since it was seized from Alcharihi’s garage in 2016. The US Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment about future plans for the artwork.

Alcharihi’s false declarations about the mosaic came just months after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, destruction by ISIS and opportunistic looting has led to the loss of large swaths of artwork and archaeological artifacts. In 2015, ISIS militants reportedly smashed six ancient statues, including one dating back to the second century.

Alcharihi is scheduled to be sentenced next month, according to the news release. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in federal prison.

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