Editing Ishtar Gate (section)

== Controversy and attempted repatriation ==
The acquisition of the Ishtar Gate by the [[Pergamon Museum]] is surrounded in controversy as the gate was excavated as part of the excavation of Babylon, and immediately shipped off to Berlin where it remains to this day. The government of [[Iraq]] has petitioned the [[Germany|German]] government to return the gate many times, notably in 2002<ref>{{Cite news|last=MacAskill|first=Ewen|date=4 May 2002|title=The Guardian|work=Iraq appeals to Berlin for return of Babylon gate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/04/iraq.babylon|access-date=11 November 2020}}</ref> as well as in 2009.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mohammed|first=Zainab|date=5 November 2009|title=History News Network, George Washington University|work=Is Iraq right to reclaim the Ishtar Gate from Germany?|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/119520|access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> The Ishtar Gate is frequently used as a prime example in the debate regarding repatriating artifacts of cultural significance to countries affected by war and whether these pieces of material culture are better off in a safer environment where they could be preserved. The example in the case of the Ishtar Gate is concerning its safety in the aftermath of the [[Iraq War]], and whether or not the gate would be safer remaining at the [[Pergamon Museum]] where it was damaged by bombs in World War II.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Arregui|first=Aníbal|title=DEcolonial Heritage: Natures, Cultures, and the Asymmetries of Memory|publisher=Deutsche Nationalbibliothek|year=2018|pages=10}}</ref>