Iraqi monument recreated in London

LONDON - AFP

A reconstruction, made from date syrup cans, of an ancient Iraqi statue destroyed by ISIL militants was unveiled in London's Trafalgar Square on March 28.

The artwork will stand for two years on the empty fourth plinth in the British capital's central square as a monument to the destruction of Iraqi culture since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Created by US conceptual artist Michael Rakowitz, who is of Iraqi Jewish descent, the replica is entitled "The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist."

"I see this work as a ghost of the original and as a placeholder for those human lives that cannot be reconstructed, that are still searching for sanctuary," said Rakowitz.

It recreates a Lamassu, a winged bull and protective deity that stood at the gates of Nineveh, northern Iraq, from around 700 BC.

The new statue is part of a wider project to recreate more than 7,000 objects looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003 or destroyed at archaeological sites in the aftermath of the Iraq War.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the artwork was an "act of resistence" against Islamic extremists and philistines.