Iraq finds missing artifacts in prime minister’s office

The Iraqi National Museum has found more than 600 missing historical artifacts, that had been stolen, in a storeroom of the prime minister's office, two years after the U.S. government returned them to Iraq, officials said on Monday. 

The 638 items include statues, spearheads and glass cups that were taken from Iraq and actually returned to the country in late 2008 but went missing after that.

It is not clear how the artifacts disappeared from view after being returned to Iraq. But the items were found on Sunday packed in cardboard boxes in a storage room for kitchen equipment in the offices of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The objects include jewellery and clay tablets as well as bronze figurines.

"It's a very important collection," BBC quoted Amira Eidan, the director of the Iraqi National Museum, as saying. “Some are from the beginning of the Islamic era, others are from the Sumerian period, some are Babylonian, Hellenistic - different periods and different cities."