Iraq will retrieve smuggled antiquities soon, Culture Ministry says

Culture and art
  • 27-01-2023, 12:47
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    Baghdad-INA
     
    The Ministry of Culture announced on Friday, an imminent operation to recover smuggled antiquities from the British Museum and the United States.
     
    "Iraq witnessed the largest repatriation of smuggled antiquities last year, by retrieving 18,000 artifacts from the United States of America," The head of the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage at the Ministry of Culture, Laith Majeed Hussein, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
     
    Hussein indicated, "The recovery operations are ongoing, and we will see another repatriation for antiquities from the British Museum and the United States of America," explaining that "some antiquities are not stolen, but there are memorandums and agreements for the exchange of antiquities for study purposes, and they are returned to Iraq within pre-existing memorandums of understanding."
     
    He added that " The stealing of the antiquities were carried out after 2003 from the Iraqi Museum, and there is also random exhumation of archaeological sites, thus we do not know the exact number of the antiquities that were stolen and smuggled," stressing that "they are illegal thefts that are severely punished by law, and some thieves are arrested among From time to time, by the security services and through the border crossings.
     
    He pointed out that "some countries are trying to keep some Iraqi antiquities, and this is not their right," concluding by saying: "We are determined to retrieve the last artifact outside Iraq."