ATLANTA, GEORGIA—11 Alive reports that U.S. officials repatriated a 2,700-year-old artifact known as “Furniture Fitting with Sphinx Trampling a Youth” in a ceremony held at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C., this week. FBI officials believe the ivory artifact, which is decorated with pigment and gold leaf, was taken from Baghdad during the looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003. The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University eventually purchased the object in 2006. “While we realize there was no ill intent on behalf of Emory University, we are glad our agents could return a small part of history back to where it belongs in Iraq,” said Keri Farley, Special Agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. To read about an eccentric Mesopotamian ruler in ancient Iraq, go to "The Last King of Babylon."
U.S. Repatriates Looted Artifact to Iraq
News March 9, 2023
Recommended Articles
Letter from China July/August 2013
Tomb Raider Chronicles
Looting reaches across the centuries—and modern China’s economic strata
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2013
Albanian Fresco Fiasco
Features November/December 2024
Let the Games Begin
How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
Features November/December 2024
The Many Faces of the Kingdom of Shu
Thousands of fantastical bronzes are beginning to reveal the secrets of a legendary Chinese dynasty
-
Features January/February 2023
Jungle Realm of the Snake Queens
How women ascended the ranks in the highstakes world of Maya politics
-
Letter from Ethiopia January/February 2023
Exploring a Forgotten Jewish Land
Using oral history, texts, and survey, archaeologists search for traces of a once-vibrant religious community
-
Artifacts January/February 2023
Byzantine Solidus Coins
(Dafna Gazit/Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2023
An Undersea Battlefield