Syria gives Iraq back treasure seized at border

[struggle4progress]

Source: Associated Press

701 artifacts returned, but up to 7,000 still missing after Saddam ouster

... Syrian authorities, who seized the looted treasures smuggled across the border, turned them over to the Iraqis, who carefully packed them in 17 boxes and flew them back to Baghdad on Saturday, said Muna Hassan, head of an Iraqi committee working to restore the artifacts.

The golden necklaces, daggers, pots and other artifacts were displayed for journalists during a ceremony attended by Syrian and Iraqi officials at the museum, which remains closed to the public, in central Baghdad ...

Mohammad Abbas al-Oreibi, the acting state minister of tourism and archaeology, said he plans to visit Jordan soon to try to persuade authorities to turn over more than 150 items seized there ...

Between 3,000 to 7,000 pieces are still believed missing, including about 40 to 50 that are considered to be of great historic importance, Laurent Levi-Strauss, chief of the section of museums and cultural objects at U.N. cultural body UNESCO, said last month ...




Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24339545/

[Joanne98]

1. The haven't searched Babs house yet.

[ohio2007]

2. "Syrian authorities said the artifacts were seized from traffickers over the past five years."

They said some of the smugglers were arrested but did not say how many.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24339545 /

Some of that stuff must be to hot to fence on the black market for even Syrian officials.