Iraq’s plundered antiquities returned to culture ministry

OVER 17,000 looted ancient artefacts recovered from the United States and other countries were handed over to Iraq’s culture ministry yesterday, a restitution described by the government as the largest in the country’s history.

The majority of the items date back 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia and were recovered from the US in a recent trip by Iraq prime minister Mustafa al-kadhimi. Other pieces were also returned from Japan, the Netherlands and Italy.

Culture minister Hasan Nadhim said the recovery was “the largest in the history of Iraq” and the product of months of effort between the government and Iraq’s Embassy in Washington.

“There’s still a lot of work ahead in this matter. There are still thousands of Iraqi artefacts smuggled outside the country,” he said. “The United Nations resolutions are supporting us in the international community and the laws of other countries in which these artefacts are smuggled to are on our side.”

“The smugglers are being trapped day after day by these laws and forced to hand over these artefacts,” he added.

The items were handed over to the culture ministry. A few were displayed but the most significant pieces will be examined and later displayed to the public in Iraq’s National Museum.

Iraq’s antiquities have been looted throughout decades of war and instability since the 2003 Us-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s government has been slowly recovering the plundered antiquities since then. However, archaeological sites across the country continue to be neglected owing to lack of funds. At least five shipments of antiquities and documents have been returned to Iraq’s museum since 2016, according to the country’s foreign ministry. One of the most important items is a 3,500-year-old tablet bearing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. US authorities seized it in 2019 after it was smuggled, auctioned and sold to an arts dealer in Oklahoma and displayed at a museum in Washington, DC.