“U.S. Repatriates Historical Artifact to the Iraqi People”
- Press release: U.S. Embassy, Iraq

On Tuesday, July 25, 2006, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki participated in a ceremony marking the repatriation of the diorite statue of Entemena to the Iraqi Government, at the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq.

Recovered this year by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing of the Department of Homeland Security, the statue of Entemena is deemed one of INTERPOL’s most significant recoveries.

Around April 2003, Iraqi cultural institutions and archaeological sites, including the Iraq National Museum, suffered extensive losses of invaluable cultural artifacts. Among the objects illegally taken from the Museum was the Statue of Entemena — a headless, statue of the 4th king in the dynasty of Lagash (modern al-Hiba, Iraq), ca. 2400 BC, excavated at Ur, Iraq.

The Statue of Entemena is the oldest known representation of a king of ancient Iraq. The statue is made of diorite (a rare hard black imported stone), stands approximately 30 inches high, and weighs approximately 300 pounds. The king is standing in the pose of a worshipper, hands folded in front, wearing a fleece skirt. Cuneiform inscriptions on his back and right upper arm tell us that the name of the statue is “Entemena Whom the God Enlil Loves” and that the statue was placed before the god in a temple.

The statue was excavated in the early 20th century in the temple precinct at Ur in southern Iraq by the joint expedition of the University of Pennsylvania and the British Museum, working under a permit from the Iraq Department of Antiquities. Since the text says it stood in Lagash, it must have been taken to Ur at a later time, perhaps as a war trophy.

In late 2005, confidential informants overseas notified DHS of the whereabouts of the statue. Around May 2006, the statue was recovered and shipped to the United States. The statue was authenticated around June 5 and remained in DHS custody.

[Link]

Interpol has pictures and case notes: Link.

Iraq Museum International reports: “Manhattan Art Dealer Helps Recover Priceless Iraq Museum Statue” –

Lebanese antiquities dealer Hicham Aboutaam believes this is a good time to consider investing in antiquities, but his refusal to handle the sale of an important statue stolen from the Iraq Museum led to its return to the people of Iraq.

After the looting of the Baghdad Museum in 2003, Aboutaam was approached in Lebanon by black market dealers offering to sell the headless statue of King Entemena.

Worth millions of dollars to collectors of illicit antiquities, the statue had made its way to Syria, and onto the FBI top 10 list of art heists.

Aboutaam, who sells antiquities to museums and collectors from his galleries in Geneva and New York, did the right thing and cooperated last year with agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wing of the Department of Homeland Security.

Information supplied by Aboutaam helped INTERPOL track down the whereabouts of the statue, and just 2 months ago, it was recovered and shipped to the United States for authentication.

[Link]

The above article is favorable to Aboutaam specifically, and the collecting of antiquities generally. Note, Iraq Museum International (baghdadmuseum.org) is not to be confused with the National Museum of Iraq.

Hicham Aboutaam’s site.

The brothers Aboutaam have their critics, and a reputation for controversy: Aboutaam Brothers in the news

See also Museum-Security.org

FBI Top Ten Art Heists — Although the FBI apparently was not directly involved in the Entemena case, the Bureau does maintain an Art Crimes Team:

Art and cultural property crime — which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines — is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

To recover these precious pieces–and to bring these criminals to justice — the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 12 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions…and it mans the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world.

[FBI: Link.]