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More than 100,000 stolen Iraq relics retrieved since 2003
By Shaymaa Adel
Azzaman, December 19, 2011
The Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism says it has retrieved 114,000 relics that were looted from the Iraq Museum or illegally recovered from ancient mounds in the years since the 2003-U.S. invasion.
It is the first time Iraq gives an exact figure of the antiquities stolen from its museums or ancient mounds and later retrieved.
In an interview with Azzaman, Amira Aydan, the head of museums at the Antiquities Department, said more relics were removed for ancient Mesopotamian sites than those that went missing from the Iraq Museum.
She said most of the pieces looted in the U.S. invasion aftermath were returned. She gave no figures but around 15,000 relics were believed to have gone missing only from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
But Aydan said Iraq faced another and more serious problem represented by the illegal excavations at the country’s ancient mounds in which relics were dug up and smuggled.
She said Iraqi ancient mounds were bleeding and believed tens of thousands of relics must have been removed from them by illegal diggers.
“The (Antiquities) Department has managed to get back most of the pieces that were stolen from the Iraq Museum,” she said.
The department is affiliated to the Antiquities and Tourism Ministry.
Aydan said the department has no estimates of the number of relics that have been removed from Iraqi ancient sites. Iraq is reported to have more than 10,000 archaeologically significant sites.
Most of these sites remain unprotected due to the upsurge in violence that followed the U.S. invasion.
Aydan did not say how many relics the department believes have been removed from ancient mounds by smugglers, but confirmed that at least 100,000 pieces of them have been returned to the museum so far.
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By Shaymaa Adel
Azzaman, December 19, 2011
The Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism says it has retrieved 114,000 relics that were looted from the Iraq Museum or illegally recovered from ancient mounds in the years since the 2003-U.S. invasion.
It is the first time Iraq gives an exact figure of the antiquities stolen from its museums or ancient mounds and later retrieved.
In an interview with Azzaman, Amira Aydan, the head of museums at the Antiquities Department, said more relics were removed for ancient Mesopotamian sites than those that went missing from the Iraq Museum.
She said most of the pieces looted in the U.S. invasion aftermath were returned. She gave no figures but around 15,000 relics were believed to have gone missing only from the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
But Aydan said Iraq faced another and more serious problem represented by the illegal excavations at the country’s ancient mounds in which relics were dug up and smuggled.
She said Iraqi ancient mounds were bleeding and believed tens of thousands of relics must have been removed from them by illegal diggers.
“The (Antiquities) Department has managed to get back most of the pieces that were stolen from the Iraq Museum,” she said.
The department is affiliated to the Antiquities and Tourism Ministry.
Aydan said the department has no estimates of the number of relics that have been removed from Iraqi ancient sites. Iraq is reported to have more than 10,000 archaeologically significant sites.
Most of these sites remain unprotected due to the upsurge in violence that followed the U.S. invasion.
Aydan did not say how many relics the department believes have been removed from ancient mounds by smugglers, but confirmed that at least 100,000 pieces of them have been returned to the museum so far.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
