The handover ceremony was attended by the Manhattan District Attorney and the Deputy Special Agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York of the US Department of Homeland Security..
The combined value of the recovered artifacts is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and the recovery of the stolen artifacts is thanks to the efforts of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan Attorney General’s Office..
The Iraqi ambassador indicated during the reception ceremony that: “These pieces are part of the history and heritage of the Iraqi people and therefore belong to Iraq, and they will be displayed in public museums in front of the Iraqi people to increase their appreciation of their history and culture.“. Noting that this initiative is another example of strengthening the long-term cooperation and friendship between the United States and Iraq.
Among the artifacts recovered, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is an ivory plaque dating back to (701-800 BC), which depicts a winged sphinx with a human head that was used to decorate royal furniture during the period of King Sargon I (721-725 BC). ) in Nimrud, northern Iraq.
The ivory painting, valued at about $450,000, was looted during the 1990s following Operation Desert Storm. The piece first appeared on the international art market in 1994..
The second piece recovered is a bowl containing a scalloped flower, valued at $200,000, looted from Nimrud, dating back to the Neo-Assyrian period (911-612 BC), before it was traded by the terrorist organization ISIS. The golden bowl appeared in The international art market debuted in 2019.
Other artifacts include a set of Mandaean manuscripts valued at $8,500.00 and two cylinder boxes, each valued at $15,000.00..
On the importance of the return of these artifacts to Mesopotamia, the Iraqi critic and researcher, Bakhtiar Saad, says in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “Successive operations to restore such precious antiquities within a short period of time, which were stolen from Iraq during the past decades, due to the turmoil of the internal conditions in the country And the exceptional and difficult circumstances it went through, is a glimmer of hope for upgrading the cultural and archaeological reality in a country that swims on seas of treasures, cultural pearls and historical monuments that reflect the depth of the civilization of Mesopotamia.“.
And he added: “This is recorded for the Iraqi authorities as well as for the countries cooperating with Iraq in order to recover its stolen antiquities, as the United States has thankfully done, as the keenness to recover these archaeological pieces and treasures that are priceless is a sign of pride and pride in the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, And taking care of its symbols and products embodied in its monuments and heritage“.
Iraq was in the largest recovery operation of smuggled Iraqi antiquities and cultural treasures, announced the recovery of about 17,000 precious artifacts from the United States of America, which were loaded on the same plane, which carried Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, from the American capital, Washington, after a visit to it in The end of last July.
.