Al-Anbar Museum to reopen with 530 ancient artifacts returned

Shafaq News- Al-Anbar

530 archaeological artifacts are heading home to Al-Anbar province, in western Iraq, after decades in Baghdad storage, as the Al-Anbar Cultural Museum in Ramadi completes final preparations for its public reopening.

Ammar Ali Hamadi, the museum's director, told Shafaq News on Monday that the collection spans pieces excavated from provincial sites during the 1970s and 1980s, alongside artifacts representing Iraq's civilizations. The pieces were moved to the National Museum in Baghdad in the 1990s for safekeeping amid security threats, and have remained there since.

The provincial council has procured additional security equipment, including inspection cabinets and expanded CCTV coverage, while the National Museum's specialized committees will oversee conservation of the returned collection, Hamadi added.

Many pieces originate from the ancient city of Eita near modern-day Hit, a settlement dating back over 7,000 years, with additional items spanning Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian, and Islamic eras. The museum previously housed manuscripts, pottery, gold and silver artifacts, and Abbasid-era relics.

ISIS occupied Al-Anbar in 2014, leaving the Museum with over 50% of its structure destroyed through the occupation and the military operations that followed, making it one of the most heavily damaged cultural institutions in the province. The group also sold many artifacts to finance its operations.

A rehabilitation project launched in 2023 contracted a firm that has since completed the restoration work. Hamadi confirmed that no original artifacts were lost during that period; items that went missing were non-original replicas carrying no archaeological value, with the entire original collection having remained secured in Baghdad throughout.