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One of Britain's leading universities is embroiled in a row over hundreds of treasures looted from Iraq.
Found scattered around ancient Mesopotamia, the Aramaic incantation, or devil, bowls were placed upside down in homes during the 6th to 8th centuries AD to trap evil spirits. The spells, and
information such as the names of the homeowners, are not found in any other source.
One collection contains the earliest examples of the Bible in Hebrew. Another collection is at the centre of a legal row that has divided Britain's academic community.
Since the first Gulf War in 1990, Iraq has been a looters' paradise. The United Nations introduced a sanction in 2003 making it illegal to handle artefacts from the country.
So when University College of London came into possession of 654 bowls, the biggest collection in the world, which it borrowed from a private collector, suspicions were raised.
The bowls belong to Martin Schoyen, a Norwegian collector.
There is no suggestion that he looted the bowls, or was aware they may have been looted when he bought them in London from a Jordanian who claimed they had been in his family for generations.
The university set up a committee of inquiry which found that "on the balance of probability" the bowls had, somewhere along the line, been looted from Iraq.
At this point Schoyen sued the university for their return. Legally his claim is sound, because he has held title for seven years.
What has dismayed academics, however, is that the inquiry report was suppressed as part of the out-of-court settlement.
Professor Colin Renfrew, a fellow at Cambridge University and a member of University College of London's committee of inquiry, is angry that the settlement said the report should be withheld.
A world expert in ancient treasures, he said the university had no choice but to return the collection.
"Even if the bowls were looted, it is likely that Mr Schoyen, as a good-faith buyer, could have good title to them. Even so there is a good ethical case for their return to Iraq," he said.
"UCL tried to do the right and ethical thing by setting up a committee of inquiry.
"Then, when threatened with a lawsuit, in my view, it gave way under pressure. How has the largest known collection of incantation bowls been in Jordan for 70 years and nobody knew about it?"
University College of London could not comment, but in June it said: "Having made all the inquiries it reasonably could, UCL has no basis for concluding that title is vested other than in the Schoyen Collection."
- Independent
