Britain Museum to repatriate looted Sumerian artifact from 2400 BC to Iraq

On September 28, the London police ordered the British Museum, UK, to repatriate an exotic smuggled Sumerian plaque fragment stolen from a temple in Iraq as it was set to go on museum display for auction. In a statement, the museum explained that while it traded in tablets, pots, metalwork, seals, and figurines among many art sculptures, the case of a valuable piece trafficked was witnessed for the first time. UK’s Metropolitan police asked the museum to return the ancient sculpture from the 2400BC to Iraq.

British Museum’s senior curator, Dr. St John Simpson, was quoted by a Guardian report as saying that the 4,000-year-old fragment was indeed an exceptional one. It was rare to see something of this quality, he informed. In an online release, the museum said that the plaque was “probably originally fixed to the wall of a temple. A stone or wooden peg would have been driven through the center of the plaque, originally square, to secure it.” Secured from Tello, Iraq, the piece shows a cuneiform inscription in front of the nose that helped the museum authorities identify it as Enannatum, the ancient ruler of Lagash, southern Mesopotamia. While the police informed that the Sumerian sculptor was looted from modern-day Iraq, the museum agreed that not much has been found about the statue in the museum inventory. 

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Date, description, and provenance botched

Simpson reportedly said that there were only 50 or close examples in the likeness of the statue from ancient Mesopotamia. And this automatically placed the piece in the valuable and rare category. He added that it was believable the plaque was stolen and brought in the UK as the Sumerian heartland got looted between the 1990s and 2003, plus the date, description, and provenance on the piece were botched and mentioned “western Asiatic Akkadian tablet” and a tablet. It is worth thousands of pounds. Two years ago, the region of  Tello in Iraq was also excavated by the British Museum in the archaeological training and excavation projects. A curator of ancient Mesopotamia at the British Museum and lead archaeologist at Tello, Sébastien Rey, was the first to notice the auction display and contact the police according to reports. 

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(Image Credit: British Museum website)