Investigators return priceless stolen artefacts to Baghdad museum

TWO priceless pieces of Iraq’s ancient heritage, looted from Baghdad’s main museum in the chaotic days after Saddam Hussein’s fall, have been recovered from a Baghdad cesspool, US officials said.

The Akkadian Bassetki, a copper statue of a seated man dating from 2300BC, and an ancient Assyrian firebox that a king would have used to keep himself warm, were recovered by police investigators.

The Bassetki statue is considered the most important of Iraq’s ancient artworks after the so-called Warka Mask of a Sumerian goddess, recovered earlier this year.