Ancient mask recovered in Iraq

IRAQ’S most cherished antiquity, the 5,000-year-old Warka Mask, returned home yesterday safe and sound after being looted during the anarchy that accompanied Saddam Hussein’s fall in April.

Captain Vance Kuhner said the mask was found after an intensive search by US troops and Iraqi police which led them to a farm just north of Baghdad where it was discovered buried under 15 centimetres of dirt.

"A tip-off came to the museum, we were given an address that led us to a juvenile, then an older man and eventually the culprit. Then it took a week of negotiations," Capt Kuhner, from the 519th Military Police Battalion, said.