BAGHDAD, 04 August 2021, (TON): According to Iraqi officials “the United States has begun returning more than 17,000 ancient artefacts looted and smuggled out of Iraq following its invasion in 2003.”

The Iraqi culture and foreign ministries said US authorities had reached an agreement with the government in Baghdad to return treasures seized from dealers and museums in the US, including a 3,500-year-old clay tablet bearing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Minister of Culture Hassan Nadhim told media “the US government seized some of the artefacts and sent them to the [Iraqi] embassy. The Gilgamesh tablet, the important one, will be returned to Iraq in the next month after legal procedures are finalized.”

Tens of thousands of antiquities disappeared from Iraq after the 2003 invasion that overthrew leader Saddam Hussein.

US authorities seized the Gilgamesh tablet in 2019 after it was smuggled, auctioned and sold to an art dealer in the state of Oklahoma and displayed at a museum in Washington, DC, the Department of Justice said. A court ordered its forfeiture last month.