Fake artefacts for sale on a side street

A former Iraqi army captain approached the Guardian offering what he claimed was looted material from the Iraqi National Museum.

A rendezvous was arranged in a side street in western Baghdad at which he produced nine objects. A meeting was held in his home, where he produced 25 pieces wrapped in cotton wool that he claimed were from the Assyrian and Sumerian periods, mainly small statues and seals. He said he taken them from a museum safe.

He asked for a down payment of $50,000 (£31,000) until the value of the goods was established on the international market.

Five specialists in London, shown pictures of the horde taken by a Guardian photographer, concluded they were fakes. A sixth was uncertain about a white marble pyramid base.

US marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanus, in charge of the taskforce searching for looted treasures, said the markings on some of the horde, which began with the letters MZ, showed they were not from the museum. He could not be sure whether they had come from elsewhere in Iraq or the Middle East but his concern was purely with the national museum.

Even if the horde was genuine, he said there was little he could do about it. He said the US had no legal authority in Iraq to make arrests or confiscate goods.

Told the pieces were fake, the Iraqi captain seemed unsurprised.