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The site proposal for the new museum, which has already won approval from Iraq's Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism and has now gone to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for a final decision, puts forth the Lakeside Palace, which Hussein built in the early 1990s. The building lies in a secure area a few miles south of Basra’s center and, according to reports, can easily be converted into a museum with four large exhibition galleries.

The museum will show antiquities (including pieces that survived looting in Basra in 1991 and have been stored in Baghdad’s National Museum ever since), ethnography, manuscripts, and some more recent historical items.

The idea for the museum was developed by Major-General Barney White-Spunner, who is in charge of British forces in southern Iraq. The project has a military code name — Operation Bell, after Gertrude Bell, an archaeologist who helped establish the Baghdad Museum in 1926 — and is being assisted by the British Museum, but all parties insist that it is an Iraqi endeavor.

Pending al-Maliki's approval, the museum can be completed in two years. Construction costs are estimated at up to £10 million ($14.9 million).