Baghdad museum not ready to reopen

In Iraq's national museum a frieze shows Assyrian King Sargon II, who ruled an empire from what is now northern Iraq, storming a rampart as soldiers pile decapitated heads before him.

The magnificent stone reliefs - from the palace of a ruler who plundered cities - themselves fell prey to looters and vandals some 2,700 years later, when the US-led invasion of Iraq left the museum open to unchecked theft.

Violence has fallen to around four-year lows across the country in recent months and artifacts are trickling back - about 6,000 have been returned of the 15,000 or so that went missing in a few days in 2003.