The statement revealed that this came during the Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid’s reception, Thursday, at the Baghdad Palace, of the Minister of Culture, Ahmed Al-Badrani, and the accompanying delegation, which included the head of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority, Laith Majeed Hussein, and the Director General of Museums, Lama Yasser.
Details of the restored pieces
The pieces include 7 seals dating back to the Babylonian civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization received from the New York Attorney General’s Office, two artifacts (a piece of ivory in the shape of a human face) received from the Central Bureau of Investigation in New York, and a clay tablet from the Middle Babylonian era received from the Office of National Security Investigation .
This is not the first time that Baghdad has received from Washington artefacts and treasures that were smuggled abroad, through what has become known as recovery diplomacy. End of July 2021.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein also confirmed, earlier, that the Iraqi government had “made efforts to stop sabotage operations against antiquities, and more than 18,000 smuggled artifacts were returned.”
Hussein stressed, “Iraq was exposed, at different times, to systematic theft to smuggle its cultural heritage,” expressing “hope to strengthen bilateral cooperation and coordination to return all stolen antiquities.”
According to experts, these successively restored pieces reveal the extent of the looting and theft that the Iraqi antiquities sector and cultural treasures have been subjected to over the past decades, especially as a result of internal and external wars, terrorism, and the turmoil of the security, political and economic conditions.
restoration diplomacy
On the importance of recovery operations, the Iraqi researcher interested in heritage and antiquities affairs, Dilshad Ahmed, said, in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that the recovery of these treasures, which express the nobility of the Mesopotamian civilization, represents an important step to recover even a small part of what was lost. Treasures, as a result of the ongoing crises and wars that Iraq has gone through.
Ahmed added, “It is important in this context to activate this diplomacy based on restoring Iraq’s cultural and archaeological property, which was looted and smuggled to various parts of the world, at the hands of international mafias specialized in smuggling and trading antiquities.”
He continued: “In parallel with these efforts abroad, it is also necessary internally to develop plans and mechanisms to develop various Iraqi sites, museums, archaeological and heritage areas, and restore and transform them into tourist attractions that attract people from around the world, and achieve great returns spiritually and financially, by defining the depth and diversity of the Mesopotamian civilization.” And in a way that provides huge financial and profitable income, by developing antiquities tourism as one of the most important tributaries of the Iraqi economy.
The Iraqi Antiquities Law imposes strict penalties on antiquities traffickers and smugglers. However, it is not possible to completely eliminate the phenomenon of theft and smuggling of antiquities, especially with widespread poverty, unemployment, and difficult security and living conditions in the country.
Iraq is one of the richest countries in the world with antiquities, to the extent that some archaeological and cultural treasures, due to their abundance, sometimes float on the roofs of historical sites, due to environmental and climatic factors such as rain and torrential rains.
Iraq was once the cradle of some of the oldest cities and civilizations in the world, and there are thousands of archaeological sites across the country where the Sumerians, Babylonians, Mitannians and Assyrians once lived.
#recovery #diplomacy.. #Iraq #receives #antiquities #smuggled #America