Iraq recovers many valuable artifacts

Dominican Republic News.Net
Wednesday 8th September, 2010

The Iraqi government has put on display hundreds of artifacts recovered from many different sources.

Over 500 pieces were recovered from the frenzy of looting at museums and archaeological sites that followed the 2003 US invasion.

Now being shown at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, the items span the ages from a 4,400-year-old statue of a Sumerian king to a specially ornamented AK-47 gun, once owned by Saddam Hussein.

The priceless antiquities had been in the hands of collectors abroad, who had them confiscated when police from different nations were asked to cooperate in the search for the pieces, 15,000 of which are still missing.

It is believed some countries, including Spain and Lebanon, have refused to cooperate in handing over missing objects.

The most prominent of the stolen artifacts is the headless statue of a king from the ancient Sumerian civilization, which is more than 4,000 years old.

It was discovered in the 1920s at the ancient city of Ur in southern Iraq and had been displayed at the museum until it was stolen during the early days of the war.

The FBI listed its theft as among the world’s top 10 art crimes.

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