Among the works on display are three stone funerary portraits from the ancient site of Palmyra that were damaged by Islamic State jihadist fighters when they seized the UNESCO World Heritage city in 2015.

The objects were "damaged by the fighting, deliberately for ideological reasons or by locals looking for something to sell," National Museum director Michal Lukes told AFP.

"These portraits were all broken with metal hammers," he said.

Syrian government forces regained control of Palmyra in 2017. The city had previously been the scene of public executions and its iconic monuments and archaeological remains had been destroyed by militants of the Islamic State group.

With its cooperation with Sudan and Afghanistan, the National Museum in Prague brought the twenty works from Syria in 2020. His team of six restorers took a year to restore them.

The set includes "metal, bronze and iron objects and funerary portraits from Palmyra," Lukes added.

The exhibition features a gold-covered pin dating from 1600-1200 BC, bronze razors and a knife, as well as copper and bronze statuettes depicting ancient deities.

The National Museum in Prague has been cooperating with the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums since 2017.

"We have started to help them by providing the necessary equipment to preserve, conserve, transport and process artifacts mainly from war zones," Lukes said.

This cooperation resulted in the formation of a joint team of archaeologists working near the city of Latakia in western Syria.

At the end of the exhibition the objects will return to Syria at the end of May, Lukes said.

"I hope the situation in Syria will be calm enough that they are not damaged again," he told AFP.

The exhibition is a tribute not "only to Syria but to all countries where a war is raging and monuments are damaged," the director stressed.

© 2023 AFP