Iraq is a haven for antiquities thieves during decades of war and turmoil

In the depths of the back offices of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, and at the end of a long corridor, away from the Babylonian columns and winged bulls dating back to the Assyrian era; the search for the lost treasures of Mesopotamia continues.

"The missing Iraqi monuments are in America, Britain, Switzerland, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Spain ... and there is an attempt to restore them," a report in the British Independent newspaper quoted Wafa Hassan, an archaeologist and head of the antiquities department at the Iraqi National Museum, as saying.

According to Wafa, tens of thousands of antiquities were looted from Iraq and transported to other museums and private collections.

Mesopotamia represents the place where civilization was born, the first cities were built, and the first words were written.

In the shadow of the war and the instability that Iraq has experienced in previous decades, thieves took advantage of this opportunity. European archaeologists have long passed their discoveries routinely to their countries of origin in the early 20th century.

Illegal excavations were also common during Saddam Hussein's reign, especially after the first Gulf War (1990-1991), but the chaos did not really begin until after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On April 10, 2003, the Iraqi National Museum was looted and more than 15,000 pieces were stolen.

As the museum reopened, another disaster occurred in 2014, when the Islamic state controlled a third of the country, including thousands of archaeological sites and museums.

During his control, the state organization destroyed many priceless statues, and the rest ran for money.

Reports indicate that the organization managed to collect more than 100 million dollars a year by selling stolen antiquities on the black market.

Among the missing pieces is a clay plate with a cuneiform inscription from the ancient city of Uruk (southern Iraq) dating back to about 3500 BC, and a cylinder bearing the name of the Assyrian king Assyrian Babylon from Babylon dating back to the 7th century BC.

Iraq has managed to recover nearly half the number of looted monuments in 2003, with the help of many foreign governments. In March of this year, Britain returned a rare Babylonian stone with a cuneiform inscription that was confiscated at Heathrow airport while attempting to smuggle it.

Britain is also to return a group of 154 cuneiform plates confiscated in 2011.

On the other hand, some countries refuse to abandon the looted Iraqi artifacts in their possession.

In London, Christie's auction last week sold several effects, including a 5,000-year-old clay tablet with cuneiform proton, actually one of the oldest recorded by humans, sold for 62,000 pounds ($ 79,000) .

The University of London investigated artifacts recovered from a Norwegian antiquities dealer, and although the result of the investigation was not published by the University, archaeologist and professor at the University of Cambridge, Colin Renfrew, published it and told the House of Lords (a member) that the investigation revealed that There is a high probability that these pieces were stolen from Iraq during the first Gulf War, on August 6, 1990, which means they were illegally sold.

According to the investigation, experts cited a law in Iraq dating back to 1936 that prohibits the export of antiquities unless they are exhibited at exhibitions or will be subject to some research.

"We have tried to restore these artifacts many times through official diplomatic channels, but unfortunately we have not received any response on this issue, so we will resort to other methods," Ali Attai, a legal officer working for the Antiquities Restoration Department, was quoted as saying.

The author reported that there are more than ten thousand archaeological sites important throughout Iraq, but only 10% of them were dug, and the rest were left unguarded, making them vulnerable to theft by smugglers.

Bruno Dislands, a conservation engineer at UNESCO, said the illegal excavation of some archaeological sites was the biggest threat to Iraq's history.

He added that the lack of consistency and communication between various government agencies and central databases to track the missing elements hinder the work of experts trying to return the lost artifacts.