Lebanon will hand over disputed antiquities to Iraq, Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada said Saturday. (Credit: Iraq News Agency)
BEIRUT — Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada said Saturday that Lebanon would return disputed antiquities to Iraq, without going into further details on the circumstances of how they arrived in his country.
Here’s what we know:
• In comments to Iraq’s state news agency, Mortada said that an agreement was reached between the Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon, where the antiquities are housed, and the Iraqi government “which includes the delivery of these pieces to Iraq.”
• Mortada added that among the pieces to be returned would be 331 inscribed in the ancient Cuneiform language as well as 6 other archeological artifacts. Iraq’s state news agency dubbed the 337 pieces as “smuggled.”
• The minister said that the handover of the pieces would take place at the National Museum in Beirut, in the presence of Iraq’s envoy to Beirut and the founder of the Nabu Museum, Jawad Adra.
• The Nabu Museum’s website says that its collection includes a “unique selection of cuneiform tablets dating from 2330 to 540 B.C.E that includes literary works and extensive social and economic records, that together provide detailed and often new, information on the history and culture of the Sumerians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia.”
• A prominent businessman and husband of former Defense Minister Zeina Akkar, Adra co-founded the Nabu Museum, in the village of El-Heri along the Mediterranean coast north of Batroun, in 2018. Iraq has sought the return of pieces in the museum, while Adra has denied any wrongdoing in his acquisition of them.