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Ancient Statue Looted in Iraq Is Returned Iraq

Submitted by coldrum on Thursday, 27 July 2006  Page Views: 2475

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Country: Iraq A prized statue of an ancient king that was stolen during widespread looting in Iraq following the U.S. invasion three years ago has been returned to the country. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held a ceremony Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to repatriate the 4,000-year-old statue.

Made of rare black stone, the headless statue of Entemena is the oldest known representation of the king of ancient Iraq. It was excavated in the early 20th century near a temple in southern Iraq by University of Pennsylvania and British Museum researchers.

Along with hundreds of other valuable cultural holdings, the statue was taken from the Iraq National Museum when looters ransacked the country's cultural sites in April 2003.

Officials say confidential informants earlier this year notified the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the statue's whereabouts. It was found in May and authenticated in June, officials said.

More: The Guardian
Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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"Ancient Statue Looted in Iraq Is Returned" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Iraq cries for help to restore ancient sites by coldrum on Thursday, 01 October 2009
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Iraq cries for help to restore ancient sites

An Iraqi man walks past the 14th-century brick minaret of the Dhu al-Kifl mosque outside the entrance to the Jewish shrine of Ezekiel. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images An Iraqi man walks past the 14th-century brick minaret of the Dhu al-Kifl mosque outside the entrance to the Jewish shrine of Ezekiel.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq appealed to other nations on Thursday to help save its archaeological treasures from ruin, saying ancient Babylonian and Assyrian artifacts and priceless medieval Islamic monuments were at risk without more funds.

Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or ‘land between two rivers' because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilisation.

Many believe it gave birth to such milestones of human development as agriculture, codified law and the wheel.

But historic sites have been woefully neglected and damaged by decades of war, sanctions and looting. Iraqi officials say they need to spend millions of dollars to reverse the damage.

Iraqi officials are hoping a sharp improvement in security will draw Western tourists to ancient sites like the biblical city of Babylon, home to King Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.

"International support is badly needed to complete works of maintenance, rehabilitation and training," said Qahtan al-Jiboubi, Iraq's Minister of Tourism of Antiquities.

High on the list is the national museum in Baghdad, once a trove of ancient artefacts which was plundered after the 2003 invasion while U.S. troops stood by.

Around 6,000 items out of the approximately 15,000 which were stolen when order collapsed after the fall of Saddam Hussein were back on display in February.

Officials from Greece, Egypt and Italy, each of which have much experience managing their own antiquities, attended a meeting in Baghdad to launch Iraq's appeal for help.

There has already been some international assistance. Italy rehabilitated two museum exhibition halls from the Assyrian and Islamic periods.

The United States has donated cash to the museum and to help restore Babylon, which was looted, rebuilt by Saddam in a cavalier fashion and used as military base since 2003.

The head of Iraq's tourism and antiquities board, Qais Hussein, said target sites included the al-Hadba minaret and ancient city of Namroud in Mosul, the medieval Islamic city of Samarra and an historic minaret in western Anbar province.

He estimated each site would cost almost a million dollars.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1980013#ixzz0PP7LMGML
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Re: Ancient Statue Looted in Iraq Is Returned by coldrum on Wednesday, 01 July 2009
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German-Iraqi dispute mounts over 4,500-year-old gold vase

An Iraqi-German dispute heated up over an antique gold vase on Tuesday, as German customs officers said they would retrieve the object from a Mainz museum vault on Thursday, despite Iraqi opposition. Both the Iraqi government and a Munich auction house have laid rival claims on the six-centimetre high vessel, safeguarded at the Roman-Germanic museum in Mainz since 2006.

The customs officials intend to hand the artefact to the Finance Court in Munich for valuation, while the Iraqi ambassador has asked the museum not to release it.

"I hope that, by Thursday, we will reach an amicable solution on this issue," said archaeologist Michael Mueller-Karpe of the Mainz museum.

The customs officials, originally due to visit Tuesday, had threatened to cut open the vault with a welder if necessary, Mueller-Karpe added.

"I don't think this will happen though," the archaeologist told German Press Agency dpa.

The Berlin branch of the International Council of Museums backed Mueller-Karpe, saying his resoluteness deserved "every respect, it is in complete accord with the ethical guidelines for museums."

Mueller-Karpe estimates the gold phial to be 4,500 years old. With all likelihood, the archaeologist believes the object to have been plundered from a royal grave in Iraq.

In 2005, investigators had seized the item from the Munich-based auction house, which had listed it as originating from the eastern Mediterranean area of the Roman Empire, Mueller-Karpe said.

The Iraqi ambassador asked the museum not to release the item until its provenance and ownership had been definitively settled by the court of highest instance - if necessary the European Court of Justice.

Mueller-Karpe said the handling of stolen goods was comparatively easy in Germany, where owners and traders of archaeological treasures did not need documentary proof of their provenance.

UNESCO and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimate the illegal trade in cultural treasures to be worth 6 to 8 billion dollars (4.3 to 5.7 billion euros) annually.

Investigations had shown that dealers often listed a false age and origin to circumvent a ban on trading objects from plundered graves, Mueller-Karpe said, adding that buyers and sellers knew full well what they were actually trading.

A 140-year-old export ban on artefacts from the Ancient Near East has drastically limited the "legal" availability of objects from countries including Iraq, Syria or Turkey, Mueller-Karpe said.

A cylinder seal, authenticated with official documents, had recently sold for 145,000 dollars, the archaeologist said.

A comparable object, described by the trader as originating from "old Swiss family property," had sold for a few thousand dollars, Mueller-Karpe added.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/275498,german-iraqi-dispute-mounts-over-4500-year-old-gold-vase.html
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