Hunt widens for Iraq's looted treasure
In 1901 a group of French archaeologists uncovered a 2,700-year-old Babylonian tablet in what is now Iran. Not only is the Hammurabi codex the first example of a written legal code; it is also the oldest known looted artefact, plundered from ancient Mesopotamia. “The looting of antiquities has been going on for a very long time in Iraq,” says Dr Elizabeth Stone of Stony Brook University, New York.
Dr Stone and Donny George, former head of the national museum in Baghdad, are at the forefront of an international effort to prevent the trade in stolen antiquities from Iraq. Some 15,000 objects were looted from the Baghdad museum during the 2003 invasion, and these are only a small proportion of the artefacts taken from an estimated 12,000 archaeological sites in Iraq.
The recent interest in heritage tourism in Iraq and other Gulf states has added vigour to the campaign to return stolen pieces. Unfortunately, archaeologists say, it has also whetted the appetite of private collectors in the region, and could provoke a resurgence in the illicit trade.
Read entire article at Financial Times (UK)
Dr Stone and Donny George, former head of the national museum in Baghdad, are at the forefront of an international effort to prevent the trade in stolen antiquities from Iraq. Some 15,000 objects were looted from the Baghdad museum during the 2003 invasion, and these are only a small proportion of the artefacts taken from an estimated 12,000 archaeological sites in Iraq.
The recent interest in heritage tourism in Iraq and other Gulf states has added vigour to the campaign to return stolen pieces. Unfortunately, archaeologists say, it has also whetted the appetite of private collectors in the region, and could provoke a resurgence in the illicit trade.