Baghdad The Ministry of Culture announced today, Wednesday, that it will receive the Gilgamesh Tablet tomorrow, Thursday, during an official ceremony in Washington.

A statement from the Ministry stated that “tomorrow, Thursday, the process of receiving the Gilgamesh Tablet will take place officially and legally in Washington, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Hassan Nadhem, and the head of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority, Laith Hussein Majid, in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Iraqi Embassy in the United States.”

It added that “UNESCO will hold an official ceremony on the occasion of the return of the United States of America (the Gilgamesh dream tablet) the oldest literary works in history to Iraq,” and the organization described the step as “a great victory in the fight against illegal trafficking in cultural property.”

It pointed out that “the Gilgamesh dream tablet (a clay tablet) over 3500 years old contains inscriptions in the Sumerian language for parts of the epic of Gilgamesh, which was stolen from Iraq in 1991 and traded in international auctions.”

The statement continued, “In 2007, it was introduced to the US art market. In 2019, it was confiscated by the US Department of Justice.”

It indicated that “UNESCO described the process of recovering this valuable artifact as the culmination of decades of cooperation between countries such as the United States and Iraq, both of which are signatories to the UNESCO Convention of 1970, which provides countries with a legal and practical framework to prevent the illicit trafficking of antiquities.”

It pointed out that “the return of the Gilgamesh dream tablet to the broader international mobilization by countries and organizations such as UNESCO represents preventing and addressing the illegal trade in ancient artifacts.”

“By returning these illegally obtained objects, the US and Iraqi authorities are allowing the Iraqi people to reconnect with a page of their history,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who will address the handover ceremony in Washington.

She added, “This extraordinary recovery is a great victory against all those who distort heritage and then trade it to fund violence and terrorism.”

“The theft and illicit trafficking of ancient artifacts remains a major source of funding for terrorist groups and other organized criminal organisations,” the UNESCO statement said.

“The United States greatly values Iraq’s cultural heritage,” Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Stacey White said. “We have worked for nearly 20 years with our Iraqi counterparts, American academic institutions and nonprofits to protect Iraq’s rich cultural heritage and preserve and honor it.

UNESCO indicated that, in recent months, it has supported the Iraqi National Museum in its inventory and research efforts to help protect and promote the museum’s valuable collection

Source: National Iraqi News Agency