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PARIS – Money from the sale of stolen artifacts in Iraq is being used to fund terrorists there, the director of Iraq’s National Museum (search) said Thursday.
Donny George told cultural experts at a UNESCO (search) meeting that 15,000 objects had been stolen from the museum and only 4,000 had been returned.
“Rich people are buying stolen material. … Money is going to Iraq and they’re buying weapons to use against Iraqi police and U.S. forces,” George said during a meeting to assess the state of Iraq’s cultural heritage.
Experts at the meeting said it was impossible to assess the scale of theft from archaeological sites outside Baghdad (search).