In August 2021, some 17.000 artworks from ancient Mesopotamia were returned to Iraq from museums in the U.S. They had been looted after the US-led invasion of Iraq and, despite their illegal provenance, had been sold on the international art market. One of these items, the so-called the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, a historical stone slab with inscriptions, had been bought in 2014 through international auction house Christie's for more than $1.6 million by a museum in Washington, D.C.