Iraq Museum schedules 1 December reopening
The Iraq Museum in Baghdad is scheduled to reopen on 1 December 2026 after a closure lasting more than two years, according to IraqiNews. Its report of 11 November cites a ministry document announcing renewed access for Iraqi visitors, international tourists and researchers.
- The Iraq Museum in Baghdad is scheduled to reopen on 1 December 2026 after more than two years closed.
- Preparations cover Assyrian sculpture, cuneiform collections, Islamic galleries and objects from several historical periods.
- The ministry links the museum's return to cultural recovery and heritage tourism.
The announcement follows renovation and preparations for displaying objects across the museum's historic exhibition halls. Its holdings include tens of thousands of antiquities from Mesopotamia, including material associated with Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian cultures. The report describes work across several collections, bringing ancient sculpture and written records into the reopening programme alongside galleries devoted to later Islamic heritage.
Among the objects identified for display are monumental Assyrian winged bulls, known as lamassu, and stone reliefs depicting Assyrian rulers. Other collections include classical stone carvings, glassware and mosaics from different historical periods. IraqiNews describes recovery and restoration work involving these latter collections, although it provides no detailed inventory or account of individual conservation treatments.
Cuneiform collections include clay tablets and inscribed prisms recording legal codes, administrative decrees and other foundational Mesopotamian texts. The Abbasid and Islamic galleries contain carved wooden mihrabs, or prayer niches, large calligraphic friezes and decorative architectural panels. Together, the collections described in the announcement cover both written evidence and objects associated with religious, administrative and artistic life.
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The ministry presents the reopening as a milestone for cultural recovery and heritage tourism, emphasising connections between modern Iraq and its historical collections. The report does not explain the circumstances of the prolonged closure or specify the precise extent of the renovations. It also provides no opening hours, ticket prices or booking arrangements for the December reopening.
