Recently, the Iraqi capital Baghdad exhibited about 100 artifacts that were looted and returned after the 2003 Iraq War.
Organizers said about 2,300 of the artifacts stolen in 2003 had been returned to Iraq, which was trying to restore it and would display it to the public in batches.
Some of the artworks on display in Baghdad
Iraq is the birthplace of the Two Rivers Civilization, and its long history has given Iraq a profound cultural accumulation and left many cultural relics. According to the statistics of the Iraqi Department of Cultural Relics, there are more than 10,000 sites in various periods that have been identified in its territory, the vast majority of which are the sites of the Two Rivers Basin civilization.
In 2003, the U.S. military invaded Iraq, which led to a continuous deterioration of the local security situation, which made the smuggling of cultural relics more rampant. In the National Museum of Iraq alone, 15,000 registered cultural relics have been lost since the looting of cultural relics in 2003, and countless cultural relics have been lost throughout Iraq due to robbery, theft and smuggling. These artifacts are trafficked outside Iraq through smuggling networks.
In March 2022, the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad reopened to the public after a gap of three years.
Officials from Iraq's Ministry of Culture said some of the artworks had been destroyed during the 2003 war, while others had been damaged and in urgent need of repair as a result of long-term preservation in very harsh conditions during smuggling and trafficking.
In the face of the loss of cultural relics, the Iraqi government has also taken certain measures to prevent the public sale of related cultural relics in the international market. At the same time, the Iraqi government has also coordinated with relevant countries and Interpol to actively strive for the early return of lost cultural relics to its homeland.
Source: Global News+