WASHINGTON — The unlikely journey of 362 cuneiform clay tablets and plaques began in ancient Iraq as far back as 2030 B.C. But they would pass through modern Dubai and Newark, survive a government seizure and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, before finally winding up back at their birthplace, fittingly, almost nine years to the day after 9/11.
In March 2001, the Customs Service was investigating a New York gallery suspected of dealing in illicit art and antiquities when agents got a tip that two boxes containing “clay objects” from Syria were being smuggled into the country from Dubai. When inspectors examined the shipment at Newark they found the cuneiform tablets, each one smaller than a deck of cards, and an expert verified that they had been looted from southern Iraq. That summer, the tablets were placed where all seized items were then stored — in a vault in the basement of the United States Customs House at 6 World Trade Center.
“We had stored the tablets down there, and then when 9/11 happened, the building was destroyed along with everything else,” said James McAndrew, a senior special agent at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency who was the case officer for the clay items. “I was aghast. I was horrified.”
The building had contained everything from knock-off Rolex watches and DVDs to bad extension cords and batteries; it had also been a short-term holding place for seized narcotics, guns and cash. As soon as the basement was deemed safe to go back into, less than four weeks later, Customs sent in agents to retrieve the guns, drugs and money. But they also brought out two heavily water-logged boxes containing the tablets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/arts/design/16tablets.html
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