Priceless vase returned to Iraqi museum
 |
Story Tools
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- One of the most precious pieces from Iraq's past was returned Thursday to the National Museum in Baghdad, inauspiciously nestled in the back of a car.
The Sacred Vase of Warka, a nearly 4-foot tall, carved white limestone votive bowl, was looted from the museum's gallery floor in the lawlessness that swept through Iraq following the crumbling of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Pietro Cordone, senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture at the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, was on hand to meet the three men who returned the vase, along with other less valuable items.
The U.S.-led coalition established an amnesty program in the hopes people would return items. The coalition also threatened to prosecute those who did not voluntarily return what was looted from the country's museums.
The looting of the Baghdad museum sparked outrage from curators around the world, who condemned the coalition for not protecting ancient, priceless artifacts.
Warka -- known as Uruk in ancient Iraq, or Erech in the Old Testament -- is near the Euphrates River in southern Iraq near Samawa. The city was sacred to the goddess Inanna/Ishtar.
The vase dates to about 3200 B.C. and is one of the oldest carved stone vases in the world. It depicts in vivid relief what may be worshippers bearing gifts to the goddess.
A team of German archaeologists uncovered the vase in 1940.
The ceremonial object was one of 47 items reported last week as still missing from the museum, and many historians and curators said they feared it would never be returned.
"This is one of the most important pieces from the Baghdad museum, and I am delighted it has been returned," Cordone said. "This is reason for people all around the world to celebrate."
"Any object taken unlawfully from the museum is a theft from the heritage of humanity," he added. "We will continue to do everything we can to secure the safe return of other missing objects."
