[Physicist]

what if they were worth real money?

They are (or rather, were). Here's my analysis of what those things were worth in raw dollars, compared to Iraqi oil.

[woofie]

My comment was a joke...I think this was done by the museum people ...but we shall see

[MHGinTN]

Referring to your post #39; isn't the issue really one of fungibility ... the Iraqi people want to retain their precious history yet sell the more fungible resource to use for rebuilding their country?