By NNN-SANA,
Damascus : Syrian Minister of Culture Dr Riadh Naasan Agha has handed over here a priceless archeological artifact to the Iraqi Minister of Tourism and Archeology Mohammad Abbas al-Uraibi.
The artifact was confiscated by Syrian authorities while it was being smuggled from Iraq to Syria.
The artifact, 100 cm high and 40 cm wide, is part of the Nimrod Temple, which is located in northern Iraq, near al-Mosul. It depicts the Assyrian Nimrod engraved on a type of stone that stores light during the day, making it glow in the dark.
In May, the Syrian Ministry of Culture handed over to al-Uraibi 701 archeological artifacts that were confiscated from smugglers. Most of these artifacts were stolen from Iraqi museums during the invasion of Iraq in full sight of the coalition forces.
Agha said that Syria has in its possession folkloric items and Iraqi traditional handicrafts that may belong to Iraqi museums, and that the authorities are working to catalogue them in order to return them to Iraqi authorities, urging other countries to follow Syria’s example and return stolen and smuggled Iraqi archeological artifacts to their rightful owners.
For his part, al-Uraibi thanked Syria for its care for Iraq’s heritage, pointing out that Iraq lost more than 15,000 historical artifacts, some of which were returned by Syria and Jordan.
He added that the Italian ambassador in Baghdad has informed him recently that the Italian government would be returning 38 smuggled artifacts that were confiscated in Italy.