Century-old Cultural Cache: Iraq Reclaims 6,000 Antiquities from UK
Iraq announced Tuesday the recovery of 6,000 antiquities that had been on loan to Britain for scholarly purposes since 1923. The return of these artifacts follows a cooperative effort with the British Museum and was announced at a press conference held at the Baghdad airport by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.
Rashid described the return as the “second largest recovery of antiquities in the history of Iraq,” highlighting the nation’s commitment to protecting its cultural heritage and national identity. The artifacts were handed over to the Iraqi National Museum.
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In July 2021, Iraq reclaimed around 17,000 looted artifacts from the United States, marking the largest number of smuggled Iraqi antiquities ever returned. These included 4,500-year-old tablets with cuneiform writing from the Sumerian civilization.
Approximately 15,000 cultural relics from various historical periods were stolen or destroyed after Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in 2003. Additionally, the Mosul Museum and ancient cities Hatra and Nimrud suffered extensive damage and looting when Islamic State forces took control of parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014.
More than 10,000 sites in Iraq are officially recognized as archaeological sites, but the majority remain unprotected and vulnerable to looting.
