Iraq Says 185 Antiquities Seized in Britain as Clampdown on Looted Heritage Widens By The Media Line Staff Iraq’s Culture Ministry said Monday that British authorities have seized 185 artifacts of Iraqi origin, an action Baghdad cast as part of a long-running push to reclaim antiquities looted from the country. Announcing the seizure at the […]
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The Media Line: Iraq Says 185 Antiquities Seized in Britain as Clampdown on Looted Heritage Widens
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Iraq Says 185 Antiquities Seized in Britain as Clampdown on Looted Heritage Widens
By The Media Line Staff
Iraq’s Culture Ministry said Monday that British authorities have seized 185 artifacts of Iraqi origin, an action Baghdad cast as part of a long-running push to reclaim antiquities looted from the country. Announcing the seizure at the 8th Scientific Conference in Baghdad, Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Ahmed Fakak al-Badrani said the alert came from Iraq’s cultural attaché in London and that Iraqi experts verified the pieces’ provenance. “The Iraqi cultural attache in London formally informed the ministry about the seizure of the 185 artifacts. Archaeological experts subsequently confirmed their Iraqi origin,” al-Badrani told the conference. He added that successive governments have recovered sizable numbers of objects through diplomacy and legal channels.
The ministry did not release a timeline for returning the items or describe the collection in detail. Iraq has stepped up heritage protection since widespread looting followed the 2003 US-led invasion, when thieves ransacked the Iraqi National Museum and stripped unguarded archaeological sites. The losses spurred a global hunt for stolen Mesopotamian material and a patchwork of seizures and voluntary surrenders in Europe and the United States.
According to ministry figures, more than 40,000 smuggled artifacts have been brought back since 2003, including over 17,000 recovered from the United States. Baghdad credits closer coordination with foreign governments and tighter scrutiny of the art market for recent gains, though investigators say the trade remains resilient and objects can vanish into private collections for years.
The latest case in Britain points to continued cooperation with overseas authorities while Baghdad tries to rebuild museum inventories and safeguard excavation sites that remain vulnerable to theft.