Iraq
Abdulamir Al-Hamdani, the revered archaeologist and former Iraqi culture minister, has died, aged 55
Hamdani, who served as Iraq’s culture minister from 2018 to 2020, played a vital role in rescuing, restoring and cataloguing the country’s ancient heritage
Babylon is coming back to life, with its famed Ishtar Gate to be restored by this summer
A new World Monuments Fund project in conjunction with the US embassy in Baghdad aims to repair Iraqi cultural heritage as part of the Future of Babylon project
Iraq Museum in Baghdad reopens after three-year hiatus
Treasure trove of ancient Mesopotamian heritage—ransacked after 2003 Iraq invasion—was closed during anti-government protests in 2019
Sculptures vandalised by Isis return to ancient city of Hatra after restoration
Artefacts had been "smashed into pieces" by Isis militants when they occupied the Unesco World Heritage site as a training camp
US customs agents return ancient cuneiform writing implements to Iraq
The millennia-old prism and tablet were found to lack proper paperwork—one after its owner’s death, the other following an online auction
Latif Al Ani, who photographed Iraq’s mid-century modernising, has died aged 89
The photographer’s images of a cosmopolitan Baghdad before the rise of Saddam Hussein have been rediscovered in recent years
Archaeologists discover 4,000-year-old ancient city in Iraqi desert
Ten teams from international universities and museums will visit the Dhi Qar region in October for further excavations
How the Pope's historic visit to Iraq highlighted Islamic State's destruction of Christian heritage—and the artists working on rebuilding it
The terrorist group destroyed 350 churches and persecuted Iraqi Christians in 2014
Mosul Cultural Museum rises from the ravages of Isis
Painstaking reconstruction by multi-agency task force is salvaging what artefacts remain after Islamic State occupation
Museum of the Bible in Washington returns around 5,000 disputed biblical objects to Egypt
Institution has been faulted for a lack of oversight in determining what artefacts were legally exported and sold
Mosul’s artists, resurgent, speak out on new Google platform
Through videos, audio clips, 3D models of destroyed sites and images of their works, Iraqis describe what they endured and their hopes for the future
Aliph finances effort to shore up crumbling Taq Kasra in Iraq, the world’s biggest brick vault
Foundation will direct $700,000 to emergency scaffolding, sensors and the drafting of a longer-term conservation plan
German curator kidnapped in Iraq is free again
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas voices “relief” at release of Hella Mewis, an arts manager living in Baghdad who works to promote young Iraqi artists
German curator kidnapped in central Baghdad
Hella Mewis, who works to promote young Iraqi artists, was abducted yesterday by unidentified men in the centre of the city
Unesco's plan to ‘revive spirit’ of devastated Mosul gets under way
Initiative involves local communities in rebuilding their historic landmarks and neighbourhoods
Two trunkloads of fake Iraqi antiquities seized by UK customs
The international market is now “absolutely awash” with forgeries, says British Museum curator who examined the hoard
Restorers making headway in rehabilitation of Erbil Citadel
After setbacks related to ISIS's offensive, preservationists in northern Iraq report progress
If the US destroys Iranian cultural sites, President Trump will be criminally liable by international law
The US is signatory to The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which forbids any act of hostility to cultural property
Geneva-based foundation Aliph directs $10m to heritage conservation projects in conflict zones
Sites targeted range from a Yemeni palace in ruins to a shrine destroyed by the Islamic State in Iraq
From a Paris inferno to the Leonardo tussle: the art world's top stories of 2019
We look back at the major events that made the headlines this year
Penn Museum hands over fragments of 387 ancient clay tablets to Iraqi Embassy
Archaeologists say the tablets, unearthed nearly a century ago, are akin to receipts
Former factory in Iraqi Kurdistan stirs hope for cultural tourism
From studio spaces to museums, a future complex holds the promise of galvanising artists
Iraq’s national pavilion at Venice Biennale shut ‘in solidarity with popular youth uprisings’
Iraqi-Kurdish artist Serwan Baran supports the move by the Ruya Foundation, saying “the people will prevail as long as we are with them”
As protests rage in Iraq, experts say culture is key to long-term reconstruction
Iraqi culture ministry announces new national museum in Baghdad as Mosul restoration plan is extended to historic churches
Tate's huge 'Guernica of the Arab world' is recreated in tapestry so it can travel the world
Dia al-Azzawi's Sabra and Shatila Massacre has been commissioned by a Lebanese art foundation as an "archive of history"
British Museum director endorses controversial sponsor BP as part of future vision
The oil company will support one exhibition at the museum next year, but not a show dedicated to the people of the Arctic
Aliph global protection fund announces 14 projects across multiple war zones
The Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, Syria’s Raqqa Museum and Mosul libraries all safeguarded
Michael Rakowitz remakes works destroyed by Isis for first UK retrospective
Recreations of lost Assyrian reliefs will be on show in Whitechapel Gallery exhibition
Basrah Museum unveils three new galleries in Saddam Hussein's former palace
Sumer, Assyria and Babylonia rooms open with support from UK government's Cultural Protection Fund
Obituary: Lamia al-Gailani, the archaeologist who brought new life to the looted Basrah museum
She was a key figure in the post-war re-establishment of Iraq’s antiquities museums