ギルガメシュ叙事詩の粘土板、米からイラクに返還

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】３０年前に盗まれ米国に密輸された「ギルガメシュ叙事詩」を記した３５００年前の粘土板が２４日、イラクに返還された。（写真は米国からイラクへ返還された「ギルガメシュ叙事詩」が記された３５００年前の粘土板）
　米首都ワシントンで行われた式典で粘土板を受け取ったイラクのハッサン・ナディム文化相は「私にとって、イラク社会の誇りと自信を取り戻すことを意味する」と語った。
　ギルガメシュ叙事詩は、古代メソポタミアの王ギルガメシュが不死を求めて放浪する物語で、世界最古の文学作品の一つとされる。粘土板はくさび形文字で刻まれており、小さいながらも文化的・歴史的価値は極めて高い。
　国連教育科学文化機関（ユネスコ）のオードレ・アズレ事務局長は、ギルガメシュ叙事詩は「人類共通の宝」だとし、粘土板が本来あるべき場所に返ることは「遺産の破壊者に対する国際社会の大きな勝利だ」と述べた。
　粘土板は、湾岸戦争が起こった１９９１年にイラクの博物館から盗まれたと考えられている。ケネス・ポライト米司法省刑事局長によると、２００１年に英国で発見された。
　米国の美術商が０３年、ロンドン在住のヨルダン人一族から購入。米国に密輸し、偽の鑑定書を付けて０７年に５万ドル（約５５０万円）で古美術商に売却した。
　さらに１４年には、ハンドメード用品チェーン「ホビーロビー」のオーナー一家で、キリスト教原理主義者のグリーン家が、ワシントンに所有する「聖書博物館」で展示するため、１６７万ドル（約１億８４００万円）で購入した。
　だが、１７年に博物館の学芸員が鑑定書の不備に気付き、１９年についに押収された。
　イラクでは、数十年にわたり歴史的文化財が略奪されている。米国は今夏、約１万７０００点の文化財をイラクに返還したが、その大半はメソポタミア最古の文明の一つである約４０００年前のシュメール王朝時代のものだった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/29-10:10）

A 3,500-year-old tablet recounting the epic of Gilgamesh was returned to Iraq Thursday after being stolen three decades ago and illegally imported to the United States.
Iraqi Cultural Minister Hassan Nazim accepted the tablet during a ceremony in Washington.
To me, it means restituting self-esteem and the confidence in Iraqi society, he said.
Despite its small size, the ancient artifact has immense cultural and historical value. It contains portions of the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered one of the oldest works of literature in human history, which tells the story of a powerful Mesopotamian king on a quest for immortality.
It's a story which has influenced all the great monotheistic religions, leaving traces also on the Iliad and the Odyssey, said UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, who called the tale a treasure for our common humanity.
She added that the stone's return to its rightful home is a major victory for the international community over those who mutilate heritage.
Its repatriation itself is a tale of epic proportions, said US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite.
The clay tablet, carved with cuneiform characters, is believed to have been stolen from an Iraqi museum in 1991, around the time of the first Gulf War.
It reappeared in Britain in 2001, according to Polite.
An American art dealer bought it from a London-based Jordanian family in 2003, before sending the piece to the United States without declaring its true nature to customs. It was then sold to antique dealers in 2007 for $50,000 under a false certificate of origin.
The tablet was sold once again in 2014 for $1.67 million to the owners of craft chain Hobby Lobby, the Green family, fundamentalist Christians who wanted to display the stone at their Museum of the Bible in Washington.
A museum curator became concerned about the tablet's origins in 2017, feeling that its documentation was incomplete. It was finally seized in 2019.
Iraq's Ministry of Culture called on other organizations to scrutinize artifacts of dubious provenance in an effort to uncover other missing treasures of antiquity.
We invite all universities, museums, institutes (and) antiquities collectors to confront the illicit trafficking of artifacts to show more care and interest in restituting those which have been trafficked to the country of origin, the ministry said.
Some 17,000 antique artifacts were already returned to Iraq from the United States in July. The pieces mostly dated from the Sumerian period, some 4,000 years ago, one of the oldest civilizations in Mesopotamia.
Iraq has seen its historical artifacts looted for decades, including since the US invasion in 2003.