British Museum to return looted antiquities to Iraq

LONDON – The British Museum says it’s handing back to Iraq a group of 5,000-year-old antiquities looted from the country after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.

The museum said Thursday that the eight items, including clay cones with cuneiform inscriptions and a bull-shaped marble pennant, were seized by British police in 2003 from a now-defunct London art dealer. Earlier this year, police handed them to the museum, where experts determined they came from a temple at Tello, southern Iraq.

The museum says it will give the artifacts to Iraq’s ambassador Friday.

Ancient Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq — was the cradle of urban civilization, and pre-war Iraq’s museums held priceless, collections from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian cultures.

The British Museum is working with Iraqi archaeologists to help preserve the country’s ancient sites.