Baghdad to build major new museum for Mesopotamian antiquities

Shafaq News – Baghdad

The Iraqi government revealed on Saturday that preparations are underway to build a new national museum to showcase artifacts from multiple eras of Mesopotamian civilization.

Mesopotamia—home to ancient cities such as Nineveh and Babylon—remains one of the world’s earliest civilizations, known for innovations including cuneiform writing around 3100 BCE.

Speaking at the Inclusivity of Contemporary Tourist Destinations conference in Baghdad, Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Ahmed al-Badri considered archaeological heritage as the "foundation of national identity and must be integrated into Iraq’s long-term tourism strategy.”

The minister added that a location has already been selected for the new museum, and that Iraq has recovered a large number of looted artifacts taken during successive periods of conflict. “What we have in storage exceeds what is currently on display,” he said.

Iraq’s antiquities were heavily affected by looting after 2003 and during ISIS’s takeover of northern areas, where the group trafficked artifacts to finance its operations. Since 2008, the United States has returned more than 1,200 pieces, while President Abdul Latif Rashid announced in May 2023 the recovery of 6,000 items loaned to the United Kingdom a century earlier for research purposes.

Officials have reported that many stolen artifacts resurfaced on the black market during ISIS’s occupation of Mosul, where the group controlled nearly 2,000 archaeological sites.

Read more: A race against time: Restoring Iraq's lost history