Iraq Seeks Help From Interpol For Return Of Lost Artifacts
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Hashim Sheikh
- . October 31, 2022
- . Update: November 11, 2022 1:14 am
Iraq has complaint to the Interpol in France about its missing artifacts and desires its cultural heritage to be sent back to it. Through this, it intends to mount pressure on many states to send the antiquities that belong to it.
The country has shared a strong and rich cultural heritage, by virtue of being the earliest recorded civilization in the history of mankind. Some have been lost over the years and are yet to be found. The country is the birthplace of many artifacts that had been looted and moved away from it in the decades of wars that Iraq has had with other countries.
“The case is ongoing and we have had excellent achievements in favour of returning Iraqi antiquities,” said ministry spokesman Ahmed Al Alawi. He further added that, “There is a recovery operations group that includes some foreign states that are working alongside the ministry.” For decades, the war-torn country has struggled with the widespread theft of its antiquities and ancient paintings.
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In early 2021, Iraq received more than 17,000 ancient artefacts, most of them from the US. The relics, dating as far back as 4,000 years, were looted from Iraq and sold on the black market mainly after the First Gulf War. Among them was an antique clay tablet bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known surviving piece of literature. For years, experts and officials have said that Iraq’s rich cultural heritage is being lost at “unprecedented rates” as a result of war and conflict between rival groups.
After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, looters entered the Iraqi National Museum, stealing thousands of priceless pieces and damaging many of the ceramics and pottery artefacts. Iraq has about 15,000 registered archaeological sites, said Mr Al Alawi. However, unregistered sites are double that number.
