These pieces are said to have been looted during the years of war in Iraq. They were finally spotted in a private Lebanese museum after it opened in 2018, then returned on Monday, February 7.
From our correspondent in Baghdad, Lucile Wassermann
This is a new success for the Iraqi authorities. During an official ceremony at Baghdad airport, they were able to display the 337 antiquities, mainly cuneiform tablets, returned by Lebanon on Monday.
These objects were looted during the years of war in Iraq, then smuggled out of the country, before being sold on international markets, and finally acquired by the Nabu museum, in northern Lebanon.
17,000 objects recovered in 2021
Since its opening in 2018, the establishment has regularly been in the spotlight. Last month, he had already had to return objects to Damascus, bought according to the Syrian authorities, from European auction houses before the start of the war in Syria in 2011.
No details have yet been released on the items returned to Iraq, but this new restitution is in the wake of many others. A total of 17,000 objects were recovered by the country in 2021. A significant figure, but which remains well below the tens of thousands of others, looted or stolen, during the last three decades of conflicts in the country.
► To read: The United States returns 17,000 exceptional archaeological finds to Iraq