Shafaq News – Baghdad / London

Iraq ranks first among countries with the largest number of artifacts on display at the British Museum, with around 164,000 pieces.

According to the museum’s data, Italy came second with 147,697 items, followed by Egypt with 119,854. France holds 81,980 pieces, Turkiye 73,992, Germany 66,263, Greece 64,928, China 58,749, India 52,518, and Iran 50,602 pieces.

Iraq has been working for years to reclaim its looted cultural property, much of which was lost during decades of conflict and illegal trafficking. Since 2008, the United States alone has returned more than 1,200 artifacts. In 2023, Iraq recovered 6,000 items that had been on loan to the United Kingdom for a century.

The effort gained urgency after ISIS seized around 2,000 archaeological sites in northern Iraq in 2014, trafficking priceless relics through black markets and inflicting heavy damage on the country’s cultural heritage.

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