Iraq repatriates 7 artifacts from the Netherlands

Relics‌‌ 02:19 PM - 2021-05-08

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The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Saturday that Iraq had received 7 artifacts from the Netherlands.

 

Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahaf said in a statement, which PUKmedia obtained a copy, that the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Hague received 7 artifacts from the Dutch side.

 

The statement added that these pieces were seized by the Information and Heritage Authority in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

 

Thousands of antiquities were looted from Iraq’s museums amid the chaos of the American invasion, with as many as 15,000 disappearing when the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad was ransacked in 2003. 

 

In 2014, the ISIS occupied Iraq's Mosul city and declared it its capital. Three devastating years (2014-2017) of occupation passed before the shackles of violent extremism could be broken.

 

During those three years, various battles took place, leaving Mosul in ruins, its heritage sites reduced to rubble, religious monuments and cultural antiquities damaged, and thousands of artifacts were looted and damaged.

 

Iraq has begun to recover some of its missing treasures. In July 2019, the British Museum assisted in returning more than 150 stolen artifacts to Iraq and Afghanistan, including ancient Mesopotamian texts written in cuneiform. 

 

 

 

PUKmedia