Photo: FBI
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — An artifact, believed to have been stolen during the pillaging of a Museum in Baghdad about a decade ago, has been returned to the government of Iraq with the help of the FBI's Boston division.
The small ivory statue entitled "Furniture Fitting with Sphinx Trampling a Youth" stands just 2.25 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide. It had been on display at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta. That's where it caught the eye of special agents in the FBI's Boston and Atlanta field offices, who determined the relic was, indeed, property of Iraq.
Dating back around 2,700 years, the figure is believed to be the first item looted from the Iraq Museum to be discovered within a museum collection within the United States.
"FBI Boston is extremely proud to have played a role in helping to recover it," said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the division's special agent in charge. "This case represents our ongoing commitment to pursue justice for victims of art crime here and abroad and to rectify such losses to the historical record."
The finding comes after a yearlong investigation, conducted by agents in Boston, Atlanta, and the FBI's specialized Art Crime Team Unit. Investigators believe the Carlos Museum obtained the relic in 2006 with a fake provenance, which claimed the item first arrived in the U.S. in 1969. After consulting experts, including a team from the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania, the item was confirmed to in fact be the missing artifact. The museum relinquished the statue to the FBI in December of last year.
During a ceremony this week at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington D.C., the item was returned to the embassy for repatriation.
“I appreciate always all the efforts from the U.S. law enforcement agencies,” said Salwan Sinjaree, the chargé d'affaires, or chief of mission, at the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq.
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