It took long enough to get there, but on the 4th July 2011 at the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Berlin, the Federal Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Guido Westerwelle handed over to the Iraqis (represented by the Iraqi ambassador Al-Dr. Hussein Katheeb in the presence of the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Al-Shahristani), the ancient gold vessel of the 3rd Millennium BC which was seized in 2005 from an auction house in Munich - apparently Münzenhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger. It is not recorded if dealers' pal, Minister Martin Zeile the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology, who boasts of the free trade in antiquities obtaining there (see here and here), was there to see this.What remains to be established is where this actually "surfaced" from, and how it got to Munich, and what else came to Munich by the same route and was not spotted. Frankly, getting a decontextualised geegaw back home is only (a small) part of the task. Once again no announcement is being made about the conviction of any middlemen or looters in this horrible trade.
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