UK police have arrested a British veteran and have charged him with trying to sell a piece of a Saddam statute given to him by US Marines following the fall of Baghdad. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/19/man-arrested-buttock-saddam-hussein-statue
The retired British special forces soldier had hoped to donate the proceeds to wounded veterans, but when the Iraqi Embassy got wind of the sale, they evidently demanded that British polices seize the item as their "cultural property."
The veteran has it right:
Describing the furore surrounding the buttock as farcical, Ely questioned how a piece of metal from a statue put up by a dictator could be classified as national cultural property.
The ex-soldier asked: "How can it be classed as cultural property when it was put up by the biggest tyrant since Attila the Hun?"
Ely believes that Iraqi officials decided to demand the return of the war relic after seeing media coverage of its value.
"American Marines gave it to me and at that time Baghdad was under American control," he added. "There wasn't even an Iraqi government and I have since turned it into a piece of war relic art.
"This is like having a chunk of the Berlin Wall – it's part of history but it's not cultural property."
Peter you have a gift for headline writing.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised at the appraised value of £250,000 for the 2' fragment. The entire statue must have been worth billions.