Iraq reclaims more than 6,000 looted artefacts

The Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) confirmed on Wednesday that Iraq has recovered over 6,000 stolen and smuggled artifacts in cooperation with some countries around the world.

SBAH’s director, Ali Ubaid Shalgam, said in a statement during the opening of the 1st International Scientific Conference on “Protection and Preservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq,” held in Nineveh province, that “more than 6,250 artifacts have been recovered through collaboration with Iraqi diplomacy and are currently housed in the Iraqi National Museum.”

Since 2008, the United States has returned over 1,200 pieces to Iraq, whose cultural properties and museums were looted after 2003. In May 2023, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid announced the recovery of 6,000 artifacts that had been loaned to the United Kingdom in 1923 for study and research purposes.

Due to the state of chaos and lawlessness the country went through, the Iraqi heritage saw subsequent looting operations, worsened by the control of ISIS over large parts of Iraqi territory in 2014, including archaeological sites.

Iraqi and Western officials reported that Iraqi artifacts appeared on the black market and ISIS militants used intermediaries to sell priceless treasures after taking over northern Iraq.

The militants gained experience in the antiquities trade after seizing vast areas in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, where they accessed around two thousand archaeological sites.

Mesopotamia’s civilization is one of the oldest, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates, rich in agriculture, trade, and a meeting point for civilizations.

Nineveh and Babylon, known for their Hanging Gardens as one of the ancient wonders of the world, were home to the Sumerian civilization, which gave the world cuneiform writing, one of the earliest forms of Western writing around 3100 BC.