Iraqi Adviser Scolds West for Negligence

LONDON—Bahaa Mayah, a special adviser to Iraq's minister of tourism and antiquities, has accused the West of not doing enough to halt the global trade in stolen Iraqi artifacts, the Independent reports. At least 100,000 artifacts have been smuggled out of the country's archaeological sites since the 2003 invasion and subsequently sold at auction, Mayah said in a speech at the British Museum. He called for an immediate global ban on the sale of these antiquities, with the aim of divesting them of their commercial value.

Mayah argued that although many of the looters are Iraqis, the demand in the West is driving the market. Typically, smugglers plunder artifacts directly from ancient grounds and then take them to the Persian Gulf and into Britain, where they use a legal loophole to acquire export licenses from the "free zones" in ports. The licenses give them official ownership of the objects, and the burden then falls on the Iraqi government to prove that the artifacts were stolen from their country. In December, a 4,000-year-old inscribed clay tablet was pulled from eBay's Swiss Web site minutes before the auction closed.

Mayah said that Iraqi ministers will discuss the proposal of a global ban with the United Nations Security Council "imminently." He added, "Some countries have cooperated with Iraq but most have not.... America is cooperating and not cooperating at the same time. We were grateful when they returned the Statue of Entemena (from 2,430 B.C.E.), but at the same time you see auctioneers all over the country trading in our antiquities. No action is being taken."