Iraq files a complaint against countries obstructing the recovery of smuggled Iraqi artifacts 

The Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities announced on Sunday that it filed complaints to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) against some countries that are obstructing the recovery of smuggled Iraqi artifacts. 

The ministry’s spokesperson Ahmed Al-Alyawi told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that during one and a half years of its plan to recover artifacts from abroad the ministry recovered 17,338 artifacts, in addition to the Gilgamesh tablet and the Sumerian ram that date back to 3,500 BC. 

Al-Alyawi mentioned that several recovery operations from foreign countries were registered at the ministry, noting that some of the recovered artifacts, which were stolen years ago, were displayed in museums and some pieces were randomly extracted. 

Al-Alyawi clarified that Iraq lodged complaints to the Interpol to put some countries under pressure to recover the smuggled artifacts. 

Iraq is putting great efforts to restore its lost rich cultural heritage after it was destroyed during the chaos that followed the 2003 US invasion. 

According to the Iraqi official, Iraq has 15,000 registered archaeological sites, while the number of unregistered sites is far bigger than this number. Some Iraqis from remote areas in cooperation with thieves carried out random excavations in these areas, extracted artifacts and smuggled and sold them, he said.

Hamda Mustafa