Iraq seeks returning stolen Iraqi Antiquities, says MP

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Parliamentary Committee of Tourism and Antiquities assured that “Returning the stolen Iraqi antiquities after 2003 from six countries is among its priorities.”

Head of the Committee MP Baker Hama stated to Iraqi News “The committee supervises the performance of the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry and works to follow up the issue of restoring the stolen antiquities from Iraq after 2003,” noting that “the committee has a schedule and priorities to restore Iraqi antiquities.”

“The United States of America, Britain, Germany, Spain, Poland and Italy are the top six countries which will be legally followed to return the Iraqi belongings,” MP Hama mentioned.

“We face some problems that delay restoring the Iraqi antiquities such as the dilatory within the Iraqi Foreign Ministry as well as lack of legal coverage in dealing with those countries in addition to difficulty of following up antique pieces through the black markets,” according to Hama.

Thousands pieces of Iraqi ancient antiquities preserved at Iraqi National Museum and other ancient sites have been subject to stealing and looting after the US invasion of Iraq in 2033.