Iraqi Embassy in UK Recovers Rare Artifact

Baghdad /NINA/- The Iraqi Embassy in the United Kingdom retrieved a rare artifact.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: "With exceptional efforts by the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in the United Kingdom, which extended for many years, and in completion of the pages of the work of "recovery diplomacy", and in a qualitative recovery process, the embassy, represented by Ambassador Muhammad Jaafar al-Sadr, received a rare artifact representing an Assyrian tablet, which forms the upper part of a (winged genie) that decorated the northwestern palace at the archaeological site of Nimrud, and weighs about (333 kilograms), with dimensions (1.16 meters wide and 1.13 meters long), and dates back to between (883 and 859 BC).

According to the statement, an official reception ceremony for the artifact was held in the British capital (London), yesterday, Wednesday, attended by representatives of the British Antiquities Police, the British Museum, the British Iraqi Institute, the Nahrain Network, and the lawyer who followed up on the process of returning the tablet." 

From  For his part, Ambassador Al-Sadr pointed out in his speech, according to the statement, the historical importance of this rare piece, which increased after the terrorist ISIS gangs destroyed the Nimrud Palace in Nineveh Governorate, stressing that the return of the tablet to its mother country (the cradle of civilizations in the Tigris and Euphrates Valley) represents a great historical and civilizational value, and would not have happened without the close relationship between the Iraqi Embassy in the United Kingdom and the Antiquities Police in the British Ministry of Interior, appreciating the great cooperation shown by police officers, officials at the British Museum, and the lawyer, calling on all those who have Iraqi antiquities to return them to their mother country, Iraq. 

The ceremony was attended by a number of embassy diplomats and employees. / End