Museums director announces exhibition to showcase 27,000 recovered artifacts

BAGHDAD — The Museum Directorate of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities announced plans to host an exhibition showcasing 27,000 artifacts recovered during the current government’s tenure. The exhibition will also feature specially designed artifacts that visitors can handle while wearing gloves.

“We will display 27,000 recovered artifacts,” said Lama Yass Jassim Al-Douri, head of the Museum Directorate to state newspaper Al-Sabah. “Some of these artifacts were looted from archaeological sites, while others were previously stolen from the Iraq Museum.” She noted that the number of recovered artifacts continues to grow, adding, “Just last week, we received two artifacts from Britain.”

The directorate is also preparing an exhibition titled “Baghdad, the Abbasid City,” which will showcase a large collection of archival images, videos, and historical documents provided by the Arab World Institute in Paris.

As part of its upcoming cultural initiatives, the museum will host a Ramadan event called “Al-Majina” during the evening hours after iftar. In addition, the Sumerian Hall is being readied to welcome visitors and delegations by mid-June.

The museum will involve schools in various activities, including a special program for the Institute for the Blind. “We are preparing special artifacts that can be touched with gloves, allowing participants to trace them on paper or replicate them using clay,” Al-Douri said, adding that this activity is scheduled for the end of the month.

Another exhibition, “Recently Excavated Antiquities,” will be held in the Assyrian Hall, showcasing artifacts uncovered by the State Board of Antiquities and foreign excavation missions.

In April 2003, following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the National Museum in Baghdad was looted, resulting in the theft of over 15,000 artifacts, including invaluable relics of Mesopotamian civilization. In recent years, Iraq has intensified efforts to reclaim its cultural heritage. Notably, in July 2021, the country recovered about 17,000 looted artifacts from the United States, marking the largest repatriation of smuggled Iraqi antiquities to date. These items included 4,500-year-old tablets bearing cuneiform writing from the Sumerian civilization.