Iran Severs Ties With British Museum Over Artifact

Iran no longer plans to work with the British Museum after the institution failed to lend the country an ancient Babylonian artifact. The artifact at the heart of the art-related hostility is a 6th century B.C. clay tablet inscribed with an account of the Persian King Cyrus the Great’s conquest of Babylon in cuneiform. According to their alleged agreement with Iran, the British Musuem was reportedly supposed to lend the Cyrus Cylinder, as the historical tablet is known, to Tehran by Sunday for an exhibition. When the museum failed to keep its promise, according to Vice President Hamid Baqaei, he decided to cut ties with the British Museum. “The Cyrus Cylinder has been turned from a cultural issue into a political one by the British,” Baqaei said of the relic that the UN deemed the world’s oldest human rights document. The British Museum, however, said it had informed the Vice President that the loan would commence in the second half of July and said it has “acted throughout in good faith, and values highly its hitherto good relations with Iran.”