“Last night we returned from Rome with an ancient artifact that has been in Italy for a long time, with us to hand it to the Iraqi National Museum,” Abdul Latif Rashid, Iraqi President, said in a press conference in Baghdad.
The returned artifact is a millennia-old square tablet made from clay with writings in cuneiform.
“Although it is a single piece, but it is important for Iraq’s history,” according to Rashid.
Rashid promised that they would work hard to return all the remaining Iraqi artifacts in other countries, “Our work will continue to return all of Iraq’s ancient artifacts and history from outside,” he said.
Iraq’s artifacts have been subjected to frequent looting and vandalism since the United States invasion in 2003, with the theft worsening after the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group swept through large swathes of the country in 2014. The country has in recent years taken strides to return the lost antiquities.
Iraqi Minister of Culture Ahmed Fakkak al-Badrani said that the returned artifact dates back to the Assyrian era in Iraq’s history, specifically to the reign of King Shalmaneser III of Assyria.
“The cuneiform text on it [the tablet] is a complete text; we know the original place of this piece,” Badrani said, adding that the text on the piece had been translated before.
The Assyrian artifact is the latest of the pieces returned to Iraq in recent years. Last month Iraqi foreign ministry announced that Iraqi diplomacy has successfully returned 34,502 artifacts since 2019.
Iraq re-inaugurated its national museum in March 2022 after years of conflict, showcasing Iraqi artifacts recovered from various countries, including the US, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, and Lebanon.
In May Rashid arranged the return of over 6,000 Iraqi artefacts, which were taken by Britain centuries ago, during his visit to London to attend the coronation of King Charles III.
