Iraqi President signs major cultural heritage agreements

Shafaq News / The Iraqi President, Abdullatif Jamal Rashid, signed Iraq's accession to the agreements (2001 concerning the protection of underwater cultural heritage, and UNIDROIT 1995 concerning the international institute for the unification of private law on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects) previously approved by the President of the Republic.

The Presidency stated in a release that Rashid "authorized the Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities, Ahmed Fikak, to deposit the authorization with the relevant authorities and coordinate with the Iraqi diplomatic mission in the French capital Paris, the permanent representative of the Republic of Iraq to UNESCO."

The statement quoted the Iraqi President as saying, during the signing ceremony attended by the Head of Antiquities and Heritage Authority, Laith Majid Hussein, that Iraq's accession to these important agreements aims to protect Iraq's cultural heritage, noting that Iraq is determined to recover the archaeological artifacts that have been stolen or smuggled out of Iraq.

It is worth noting that Iraq reclaimed 6,000 archaeological pieces that Britain had borrowed 100 years ago for study and research purposes, dating back to various stages of Iraq's civilization.

Back then, Rashid, stated, "the return of these artifacts from the United Kingdom marks the second-largest retrieval of artifacts in Iraq's history," praising "the efforts made, and the cooperation of the British Museum in recovering the borrowed Iraqi artifacts."

The spokesperson of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, confirmed that Iraq has recovered a total of over 34,000 artifacts in five years. Artifacts were also recovered from the United States, South Korea, Spain, Lebanon, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The years following the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003 witnessed the theft of a large number of artifacts, either from museums like the Iraqi National Museum or due to illegal excavations in archaeological sites across the country amid a state of security chaos.

Some precious archaeological pieces were also destroyed, especially during the control of ISIS after 2014; statues and artifacts in the Mosul Museum in Nineveh province were smashed, and valuable pieces were looted from the museum and smuggled abroad.