Spanish Police Recover Stolen Iraqi Artefacts
Date: 22-Feb-06
Country: SPAIN
The 21 engraved terracotta tablets and gold-and-lapis-lazuli necklace, of Sumerian or Babylonian origin, had been sent for sale to a Madrid auction house, the ministry said in a statement.
The Baghdad office of Interpol had confirmed that the pieces were "objects of Iraqi heritage taken from heritage centres of southern Iraq," it said.
The pieces were probably taken from Iraq during the fighting that followed the US-led invasion, it added.
Spanish authorities have asked Interpol's Baghdad office for help in ascertaining exactly where the items came from so they can be returned, the statement said.
Iraq's archaeological sites have been ravaged by looters in recent years landing the war-torn nation on a list of the world's 100 most endangered cultural sites last year.
