It appears that the scale of the overall losses from the National Museum's collection is significantly less than initially reported with estimates of up to 170,000 lost or looted items now being re-estimated at nearer to 3,000. The majority of the museum's collection, including the Nimrud treasures, was removed for safekeeping before the start of the conflict.
DCMS has endorsed the British Museum's efforts to co-ordinate support from the international museum community for the restoration of the National Museum in Baghdad. A team of curators and conservators from the British Museum is travelling to Iraq shortly to carry out assessment work.
The UK Government has offered to make arrangements for a group of Iraqi culture specialists to visit the UK as soon as possible for appropriate training.
The UK Government will continue to work closely with the international cultural heritage community and law enforcement agencies to prevent the trafficking in cultural artefacts illegally exported from Iraq. Measures taken to achieve this include:
- Interpol and the International Council of Museums issuing a Red List of the most important Iraqi antiquities that have been looted
- The UN Security Council adopting Resolution 1483 which lifts sanctions on Iraq but maintains the restrictions on the import of cultural property, and
- UK Government support for the new legislation Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Bill, designed to clamp down on the international black market in looted cultural objects within the UK. It passed its Commons Committee Stage without amendment on 14 May and will have its Report and Third Reading on 4 July.
