Saudi Antiquities Exhibition Opens

Riyadh, (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) – 13 February 2012 – The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdulla bin Abdul Aziz, patronized on Saturday, February 11, 2012, the exhibition of the “National Recovered Antiquities,” at the National Museum in Riyadh. The exhibition was held in conjunction with the events of the Al Jenadriyah Heritage and Cultural Festival, to ensure it got the best exposure, and to give the large numbers of Jenadriyah visitors the chance to enjoy the rare exhibited pieces.

The organization of this exhibition reflects the importance of recovering the national antiquities that have been taken outside the country or even held by citizens inside the country. The President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman, expressed his appreciation to the citizens and all the people who previously lived in Saudi Arabia for voluntarily handing over large numbers of relics to SCTA, stating that, their initiatives reflect their awareness on the importance of these antiquities and their historic value.

HRH appealed to everyone who possessed Saudi antiquities, inside and/or outside the country, to hand them to SCTA, saying, “It is a national duty which will contribute in serving [the] kingdom’s national heritage and culture.”

HRH said that, SCTA lately has made great efforts to recover large numbers of antiquities from outside the kingdom. Lately, 14,000 relics were recovered from outside the kingdom, some of which are relics and were taken a long time ago by foreign archeological teams, some of them lost for decades.

At the end of his statement, HRH President of SCTA expressed his gratitude of the great attention paid by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and HRH Crown Prince towards the national heritage, to maintain them as a source of pride, as well as cultural and economic resource to the Saudi nation, and a cultural dimension which complements the kingdom’s international well-established economic, political, and religious dimensions.

Saudi Arabia urges everyone to immediately notify or report to SCTA’s branches through its website www.scta.gov.sa and/or telephone number 800755000 on any relics they possess or find, and that they must not remove the relics from the site’s surface, and reassures that information will be treated as strictly confidential.

Media Contact:
Najla A. Al-Khalifah (MP)
Email: najla@scta.gov.sa