Iran threatens action over U.S. artifact ruling

Tehran Times
Jul. 05, 2006

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is to take action against a U.S. court ruling that could see a U.S. museum forced to sell off ancient Persian artifacts to compensate victims of a bombing in Jerusalem, the official IRNA news agency said Tuesday.

"(Iran) is going to hire a lawyer and defend its cultural rights through the foreign ministry and Iran's ambassador to the United Nations," Omid Ghanami, head of legal affairs in the Cultural Heritage Organization told IRNA.

?These pieces cannot be seized or auctioned off as they are loaned, are not commercial and represent a country's cultural identity," Ghanami said.

He said Iran expects the UN cultural organization UNESCO to help return the artifacts as both Iran and the United States are signatories to a 1970 UN convention that prohibits illicit trade in cultural property.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has also threatened retaliation if the United States moves to auction off the artifacts -- an invaluable collection of clay tablets bearing ancient cuneiform script which have been in its care since the 1930s.

The University of Chicago had returned some 300 pieces in its collection to Iran in 2004.