(via researchbuzz.me und science.org):
“Browse through the collection of the new Museum of Looted Antiquities and you’ll find notable relics with long histories of being moved between countries, such as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet. The clay tablet dates back 3500 years and preserves cuneiform text referring to the world’s oldest piece of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. It was looted from an Iraqi museum during the 1991 Gulf War and displayed in the Museum of the Bible until 2021, when the tablet went back to Iraq after a legal dispute.
Launched in early June, the digital museum tracks repatriated artifacts to better understand the black market of the antiquities trade, which the museum team estimates to be worth $2.5 billion, calculated from values listed in court documents, auction records, and other such sources. Demands for the repatriation of stolen artifacts have increased worldwide as formerly colonized countries confront former colonizers over past actions, and interest from law enforcement in illegal trading grows.”