Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
A valuable Iraqi manuscript dating from the 11th century which was stolen from a library has been returned by British police, officers said Thursday.
The manuscript, worth 250,000 pounds (370,781 euros, 471,988 dollars) was written by Arab physician Ar-Razi and was stolen from the AwQaf library in Mosul, northern Iraq, in 1977.
It remained missing until 2003, when a man tried to sell it to a London auction house and police were alerted.
The manuscript was handed over to Iraqi Ambassador Salah Al-Shaikhly by Commander Sue Wilkinson of London's Metropolitan Police, along with an ancient Aramaic incantation bowl.
The bowl, worth up to 2,000 pounds, was found by officers on sale at a London antiques market and is believed to have been looted in Iraq.
"We continue to run overt and covert operations to ensure that London is a hard target for criminals to trade in and we are pleased that we have been able to recover and return these important artefacts to the Iraqi authorities," Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley, head of the Metropolitan Police arts and antiques unit, said.
kah/smc
Britain-Iraq-culture-police
AFP 141813 GMT 09 06
COPYRIGHT 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
