After the 1991 Gulf War, a list of artifacts stolen from Iraq museums was compiled – about 2000 objects were missing. “Eleven years later, experts say, no more than half a dozen of the pieces have been tracked down. Many others are presumed to have been traded away through a thriving international market in antiquities. The poor record of returning artifacts lost after the gulf war suggests the daunting obstacles that museum officials and police investigators face as they commit to finding items recently sacked from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad and other sites.”