UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

09/20/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2021 09:48

UNESCO celebrates US handover of 3,500-year-old Gilgamesh Tablet to Iraq

UNESCO will celebrate a significant victory in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural objects when one of the oldest literary works in history is formally handed back to Iraq by the United States of America at a ceremony at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC this Thursday, September 23rd. In addition to this exceptional piece, in July, the US Government facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 17,000 artefacts to Iraq which were discovered to have been looted in recent decades.

The "Gilgamesh Tablet", also known as the "Gilgamesh Dream Tablet", is believed to have been looted from a museum in Iraq following the conflict in that country in 1991. In 2007 it was fraudulently introduced into the US art market and in 2019, it was seized by the US Department of Justice.

The restitution of this valuable artefact is the culmination of decades of cooperation between states such as the United States and Iraq who are both signatories of UNESCO's 1970 Convention, which provides countries with the legal and practical framework to prevent illicit trafficking, and to ensure that recovered items are returned to their rightful place.

The Gilgamesh Tablet's return also symbolises the wider international mobilisation, both by countries and organisations such as UNESCO, to prevent and tackle the illicit trade in ancient artefacts.