|
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'winged sphinx'.
Found 1 result
-
Iraq succeeds in recovering the largest smuggled archaeological group 07-28-2021 07:00 PM AMMAN — The Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Hassan Nazim, said today, Wednesday, that Iraq succeeded in retrieving the largest archaeological group smuggled from the United States of America. He added in a statement published by his ministry on its Facebook account: “The number of recovered clay objects has reached 17,000 artifacts, and great efforts have been made in this regard between the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to the efforts of our embassy in Washington that continued for many months.” And the minister continued, saying, "We have finished recovering these pieces from many outlets that were present here, most notably from Cornell University in particular, and that the return of these pieces will be on the same plane for Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi to Baghdad after the end of his important visit to Washington." Nazim added, “This is a big event, and I hope in the near future to also work seriously with our embassies in the world, and in Europe in particular, to recover the rest of our monuments. It is worth noting that these recovered pieces date back to 4500 AD and bear cuneiform inscriptions documenting trade exchanges that took place during the Sumerian civilization. Iraqi antiquities have been subject to smuggling for decades, according to Qahtan Al-Obaid, the director of Basra's antiquities and heritage, told AFP. The expert explains that “it is not possible to count the number of artifacts stolen from archaeological sites directly, because they are not numbered,” and are also unknown or not yet discovered, especially in areas that have witnessed armed conflicts. He explains that “some of these thefts are intentional and come within the framework of organized crime,” while others “are unintended, especially in remote areas where local people resort to searching for precious stones and selling antiques in order to secure daily living and do not know the extent of their value and importance.” . Return to the embrace of the homeland A court ruling was issued in the United States, on Tuesday, to return a thousands-year-old painting that narrates some of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" to Iraq. That painting was stolen in 2003, and ended up being smuggled out of Iraq to become one of the holdings of the Museum of the Bible in Washington. The rare piece narrates part of the historical "Epic of Gilgamesh", written in Akkadian cuneiform script, and is one of many ancient artifacts from Iraq and the Middle East collected by billionaire David Green, owner of the "Hobby Lobby" series, as a report by CBS News indicated. ", today is Wednesday. The painting was seized by the US Department of Justice in 2019, two years after Green opened and placed the Museum of Ancient Christian History in downtown Washington. Gilgamesh dream painting According to the Department of Justice, Hobby Lobby purchased the 6-inch by 5-inch (15.2 cm by 12.7 cm) tablet, known as the "Painting of Gilgamesh Dreams," from a prominent auction house in 2014 for $1.67 million and originally brought the painting illegally. Legal to the United States in 2003 by a dealer who bought it in London from a well-known Jordanian dealer in the antiquities market of the Middle East. The painting was then circulated several times with fake certificates of origin to assure buyers that it was obtained legally, rather than being part of the illegal antiquities trade. In 2014, Hobby Lobby arranged to purchase the painting in New York, but executed the deal in Oklahoma to avoid sales taxes, according to the Department of Justice. The company then donated it to the Museum of the Bible's collection. Since the painting was seized in 2019, the Ministry of Justice has sought to acquire it through confiscation laws, to be able to return it to its rightful owners. "This expropriation, which was ordered by court order on Tuesday, represents an important procedural step on the path to returning this rare and ancient masterpiece of world literature to its original homeland" after 18 years of looting and smuggling, said acting attorney for the State Department, Jacqueline Casoulis, in New York. She added in a statement that her office is committed to combating the black market sale of cultural property and the smuggling of looted artifacts. The tablet was one of thousands of artifacts of Iraqi origin, mostly cuneiform tablets and seals between 3,000 and 4,000 years old, that were seized from the Hobby Lobby and the Bible Museum for return to Iraq. The Ministry of Justice said that these pieces were looted in Iraq and trafficked illegally.
