A Californian has been convicted of illegally importing an ancient floor mosaic into the United States, believed to have been made in Syria nearly two thousand years ago and estimated to be worth nearly half a million dollars.
Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, 56, was convicted of the count of entering goods with misclassification on June 21, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office.
Alcharihi made a “misclassification” regarding the “value and quality” of the massive mosaic, federal prosecutors said in the statement. The antique artwork arrived at the Port of Long Beach as part of a shipment from Turkey in August 2015.
The mosaic, believed to date from the Byzantine era of the Roman Empire, depicts a mythological scene: Hercules rescuing Prometheus, chained to a rock by other gods for stealing fire.
LOUAI BESHARA / AFPMosaic dating from Roman times unearthed in western Syria, June 22, 2023
Alcharihi paid about $12,000 for the antiquity, which an appraiser put at $450,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. When he brought the artwork to the United States, he lied when he said he was importing ceramic tiles from Turkey worth less than $600, prosecutors say.
The mosaic weighs 900 kg and is about 4.5 meters long and 2.4 meters high, according to the statement. The piece was hidden in a shipping container behind a pile of vases and then trucked to Alcharihi’s home after clearing customs.
It has been stored in a depot in Los Angeles since it was seized from Alcharihi’s garage in 2016. The United States Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on future plans for the work of art.
Alcharihi is expected to be sentenced next month. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
2023-07-02 14:21:35
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