Looting began after the Gulf War. Now, anyone caught trafficking antiquities out of the country gets a death sentence, and sites are guarded with Kalashnikovs.

In the Iraq Museum in Baghdad lies evidence of what George calls "the crime of the century." In 1994, archaeologists digging at Khorsabad, a city built by Sennacherib's father, Sargon II, found a huge, stone statue of a winged bull. It was in excellent condition. With the onset of the winter rainy season, they decided to bury the statue and return later when the ground was firmer and it would be easier to move the statue to a museum. Bandits moved in and used saws to decapitate the bull. Next, they chopped the head into 11 pieces (above) for easier transport. Caught attempting to cross the border, the looters were executed.
Iraq, and especially the northern province of Kurdistan, contains more than 10,000 archeological sites, most of which have still not yet been uncovered, according to official statistics.