Notes on the looting of antiquities in Iraq and the memory of the west

Abstract

The US-led Coalition that invaded Iraq on 2003 paved the road for the looting of cultural and archaeological resources of the country, which were rapidly incorporated into antiquities black markets. A critical view, as a mean to interpret the looting, points at three questions that should be addressed by historians and archaeologists, but also by political researchers: 1) the role of archaeological artifacts in Middle Eastern countries; 2) the ideological place that the West maintains for Eastern antiquities; 3) the policies that should be followed, taking the previous points into account.