Trapped in the Christie's sale of bas-relief depicting a winged deity Bhallu comes from the Palace of the great Assyrian king of ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud (modern Iraq). Along with hundreds of other artifacts of this bas-relief was removed from the place of occurrence in the nineteenth century — long before the advent of laws protecting cultural heritage in these lands. Then it was the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the Grand vizier allowed the discoverer of this archaeological complex, with the British Austin Henry Maardu, carry a large part of the finds in London (where they formed the nucleus of the collection of Assyrian art British Museum). Other reliefs also sold around the world museums — from Kansas to Kyoto. Three of them were purchased by the missionary Henry Biron Haskell for the Virginia theological Seminary. From the funds of the Seminary and was offered for auction is the bas-relief of a winged deity — after more than a century and a half stay within its walls. The reason for the sale is simple: at the Seminary did not have enough money to pay for the insurance of exhibits (insurers counted them for $70 thousand per year for each bas).

Bidding started at $7 million, but the struggle in the auction the price rose to $28 million And with the auction house Commission result and higher — nearly $31 million ($30,968 million). It is now the record for the entire Assyrian art and one of the most expensive works of the Ancient world (more expensive, only so-called "Lioness Guennola" from Mesopotamia, sold in 2007 for $57.2 million).

This fabulous price can not affect the situation of smuggling artifacts — scientists believe-археологи. Nimrud was destroyed by ISIS militants in March 2015, ancient monuments pricked picks, shot from rifles and crushed by bulldozers, but many of the works, as experts believe, was sold on the black market, and their sales have become one of the sources of financing ISIS. History of the sale of the Assyrian bas-relief can lead to higher prices and other antiquities. Against the sale objected to the Iraqi authorities: they appealed to Christie's with a request to stop the sale and repatriate the bas-relief (now in the Iraq Museum remains a matter of works of Assyrian art), but they refused. Christie's substantiate the legitimacy of the sale the fact that Haskell purchased the relief directly from Layard, and the latter had direct permission from the Grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire to take out all that he wills.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: npr.org, edition.cnn.com, christies.com