Lost, Stolen or Shredded - The Cradle of Civilisation

Series of programmes in which antiquarian book dealer Rick Gekoski tells the stories that lie behind five very different missing works of art. One of the little-reported but culturally significant effects of the war in Iraq has been the loss of works of antiquity from the country's museums. From the Iraq Museum in Baghdad alone, it is estimated that 15,000 objects dating from the dawn of civilisation have disappeared. Rick Gekoski examines how and why these Mesopotamian artefacts were looted and speculates on what may have happened to them. A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.