On loan to the Louvre for five years an ancient Lihyanite monumental statue

Arriving at the Louvre from the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), on loan for five years, is a 2.3-meter-highancient monumental statue carved from sandstone and presumably depicting an ancient Lihyanite king. Dating from the 5th-3rd centuries B.C., the sculpture was found by archaeologists working at the Dadan site in AlUla, northwestSaudi Arabia.

In fact, during archaeological excavations at the Dadan shrine, conducted by King Saud University, several colossal statues were discovered between 2005 and 2007, believed to depict kings and priests. About 2,800 years ago, Dadan was one of the most important hubs of the incense and aroma trade route that led from the south of the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast. Around the second half of the 1st millennium B.C., it was ruled by kings of the Lihyan tribe, who maintained power for centuries.

The monumental statue on loan to the Louvre shows great craftsmanship. The statue’s smooth surface, with details highlighting the muscles of the torso, abdomen, and remnants of the limbs, has elements characteristic of the Lihyanite school of sculpture: features that indicate the local nature of the statue and reflect the early artistic influence of Ancient Egypt or Greece. It had already been exhibited at the Louvre in 2010 for the Roads of Arabia exhibition and was restored in France as part of that exhibition. That exhibition had displayed a selection of three hundred works, most of which had never been seen outside their country of origin, and artifacts from the Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exhibition had been presented at the Louvre on that occasion. Visitors had been given a glimpse of the various cultures that inhabited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from prehistoric times to the dawn of the modern era.

On loan to the Louvre for five years an ancient Lihyanite monumental statue

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