Artifacts stolen by IS from Mosul museum recovered
Iraqi artifacts. File photo.
“A displaced family found pivotal artifacts as it returned back to house in al-Zanjili district. The relics were returned back to Federal Police elements deployed there,” Moss’ab Jassim, head of Nineveh monuments department, told Baghdad Today on Sunday.
The artifacts, according to Jassim, “were stolen by IS from Mosul museum while the city was under the group’s control.”
The group, which considered sculptures as symbols of infidelity, posted footage showing its members axing down priceless Assyrian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Persian and Roman artifacts, many of them two millennia old or older, drawing international condemnation. Reports later showed that some antiquities were sold out in online auctions.
In March, Iraqi troops took the museum back from the militants, leaving its collection in a sorry state.
Mosul museum, which was built in 1952, housed more than 2,000 artifacts. Officials gave conflicting accounts of how many militants were there when the group overran the city in 2014.
The victory in Mosul in July marked an end of an eight-month campaign backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces which has displaced more than 900.000 civilians.