Kingdom returns artifacts to Iraq

Kingdom returns artifacts to Iraq Arab News

RIYADH: The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) handed over a number of Iraqi cultural artifacts smuggled to the Kingdom by an Arab expatriate recently. The returned artifacts include statues of human beings and lions of varying sizes made of marble and other materials. Hussein Abu Al-Hassan, assistant vice president of the SCTA, signed on Wednesday a statement returning five artifacts to the second secretary at the Iraqi Embassy in the Kingdom, Ahmad Al-Jarba, and attaché Abdullah Rashad. This is the second time in two months the SCTA has returned stolen cultural properties to Iraq. The move comes as part of the agreement of protection of the cultural assets between the two countries in line with a UNESCO convention. “The Kingdom is committed to international agreements particularly on the protection of cultural assets. The Saudi regulations pertaining to the protection of cultural heritage in the Kingdom also do not approve thefts of cultural properties of other countries,” Al-Hassan said after handing over the artifacts. He added that just as SCTA strives to get back all of the Kingdom’s lost cultural artifacts, it cooperates in returning artifacts stolen from other countries and brought to Saudi Arabia. Al-Jarba commended the efforts of the SCTA in returning the antiques to Iraq. The UNESCO convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing illicit import and export, trade and transfer of ownership of cultural property was created in 1970.