Stolen Iranian Relics Return from UAE and UK

20 January 2005

Nine historical items given back by Emirates and 31 that will soon be returned from London will be showcased in Iran's National Museum.

According to head of the department for historical and cultural items of museums, Masumeh Mossala, the preliminary research on the objects handed to the Iranian Foreign Ministry by the Emirates counterparts, their comparison with designs of pottery found in Jiroft, and studies of the publications of Yusef Majidzadeh, the head archeologist of Jiroft, proved that they belong to the ancient civilization of Jiroft, in Kerman.

"Scholars of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization are to travel to London in the first half of Bahman (end of January) to get back 31 Jiroft objects seized from smugglers in the London airport," Mossala told CHN, adding that the 9 items repatriated from Emirates and those from London will then be transferred to the Iranian National Museum to be showcased later on.

The items to come back to Iran include cups, bowls, vases and chalices with different decorative designs of fish, geometric forms, palms and temples. They are all of stone and as a result not much damaged.

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