Vincent Brooks, the Central Command spokesman, admitted the military underestimated the extent Iraqis were willing to loot their own cultural treasures.

CNN: Antiquities experts: Some looting was 'commissioned'

He worked closely with New York's Metropolitan Museum to obtain cultural treasures for an exhibition on Arab Spain in Grenada's Alhambra Palace.

ECONOMIST: Javier Solana, NATO��s master-builder | The

Cairo has dozens of buildings and museums housing priceless cultural treasures.

UNESCO: OFFICE IN BRASILIA

Their pilgrimage took them to the cultural treasures at Luoyang and Xian, both sites of ancient capitals, the old trading post of Dunhuang and, of course, Beijing and the Great Wall.

CNN: WOMAN WARRIOR

"The Chinese do enjoy visiting their cultural treasures, but they have very different sensibilities to our own, " says Catherine Heald, CEO of high-end Asian tour company Remote Lands, in New York.

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The real and practical worry is that the refusal of the British Museum to discuss the issue seriously will give the wrong message to those tempted to exploit current political circumstances in order to misappropriate cultural treasures and destroy their integrity.

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The country is friendly, fun, affordable and teeming with wonderful natural, cultural and culinary treasures.

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Protect our Marine Treasures: How can we better preserve the natural and cultural heritage of the ocean and coasts and the essential services that ocean provides to society?

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The Turks are too determined to depict themselves as victims of cultural oppression to accept that foreign museums and archaeologists have also played a part in saving their treasures.

ECONOMIST: Turkey��s cultural ambitions