Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz has requested that the British Museum exchange the contribution of a sizable piece of his work for the repatriation of a historical artifact to Iraq. The Guardian claims that Rakowitz’s suggestion will be discussed during an upcoming meeting between the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and British officials in London next month during a planned tour of British museums.
Rakowitz has proposed that the Tate Modern, a British Museum affiliate under the control of the U.K. government, receive a gift of his 2018 Fourth Plinth commission in Trafalgar Square in exchange for the latter sharing ownership of an Assyrian artifact with Iraq. According to the Guardian, he started investigating the exchange in 2020 and is now getting closer to being a reality.
A mythical Assyrian winged bull known as a lamassu fashioned of date syrup tins was Rakowitz’s Fourth Plinth request, according to Artnews. In a letter to the British Museum, he mentioned his plans to donate a related work to the Tate Modern. One of the two Assyrian lamassu statues in the British Museum’s permanent collection would be returned as part of Rakowitz’s proposed agreement. A British archaeologist from the 19th century found the statues.
Rakowitz has frequently brought up the destruction of cultural assets in Iraq as a result of recurrent hostilities in his writing. Officials in charge of Iraq’s cultural programmes are currently attempting to repair the Mosul Museum, which ISIS fighters wrecked in 2015. Lamassu sculptures were among the antiquities that were destroyed during the attack.
Rakowitz informed the Guardian that the Tate and the British Museum are in confidential discussions to forward the artist’s desire. When ARTnews contacted Rakowitz and Tate for more insight into the conversations, no one responded right away. The British Museum has not yet declared that it will return the original lamussu to Iraq, but according to a statement acquired by the Guardian, it is apparently contemplating a loan agreement and “future partnerships.” Historically, the museum has loaned copies of removed items to national institutions seeking restitutions, a practice that has drawn criticism from repatriation activists.