Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk has handed back some 70 historic objects from Mesopotamia to the Iraqi embassy. One of the pieces is a stamp with the inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty ruler of the neo-Babylonian Empire in the 6th century BC. There is also a fertility totem dating back to 5300 BC.

The art treasures were traced on the internet by the Heritage Inspection and Interpol, and found on websites where they were being offered by Dutch art traders. The trade in such pieces is widespread, as a result of illegal archaeological digs and also because of looting of Baghdad's National Museum in 2003.