Neo-Assyrian Gold Earrings

In 2010, the US government restituted a pair of Neo-Assyrian gold earrings belonging to the Iraq Museum that had been stolen and smuggled out of the country by unknown persons during the Iraq War.

The earrings, estimated to date from 8th to the 7th century BCE during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, were excavated from a royal tomb in Nimrud in Northern Iraq. In 1988, Iraqi archaeologist Muzahim Hussein led the excavations of three tombs beneath the palace of Nimrud. The most significant discoveries came from the Northwest Palace complex, the Southern Section of which contained the domestic wing, the royal harem, and the royal burials. Excavations uncovered hundreds of gold earrings from the tombs. Like the restituted pair, many of these were boat-shaped wire earrings with protruding conical elements decorated with filagree and granulation, similar to earrings worn by Assyrian kings in relief carvings at Nimrud. These and other jewelry made up the Treasure of Nimrud and were briefly placed on display in the Iraq Museum before they were moved to a vault beneath the Iraqi National Bank. 

After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the Iraq Museum was subject to intense looting. US forces found much of the missing jewelry from Nimrud in a flooded vault of the Iraqi National Bank, but later reported that numerous items were missing. Among them were these two conical gold earrings, which eventually resurfaced in the catalogue of Christie’s Ancient Jewelry sale in New York on December 9, 2008. According to the catalogue, the earrings resembled similar earrings found at Nimrud but suposedly had been acquired by a private collector before 1969.  

Iraqi officials were alerted to the auction and filed a petition demanding a halt to the sale. One of the most vociferous experts to oppose the auction was Donny George, former director of the Iraq Museum, who was part of the original excavation of the Royals Tombs at Nimrud. The FBI launched an investigation to determine whether the earrings were from the Treasure of Nimrud. Christie’s subsequently withdrew the lot from the auction, and the earrings were repatriated to Iraq in February 24, 2010.

Muzahim Hussein, "Nimrud: The Queen's Tombs"
https://web.archive.org/web/20251026015715/https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/misc-2016-Nimrud-Queens-Tombs-web.pdf

Heritage Items Returned to Iraq
https://archive.fo/kaILb

Trafficking Culture: Nimrud Earrings
https://archive.fo/pLHKr

Iraqi Treasures Found Safe
https://web.archive.org/web/20260506230021/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/6/7/iraqi-treasures-found-safe