One of the most important treasures to1en in the ransacking of Iraq's national museum three years ago has been recovered in a clandestine operation involving the U.S. governrnent and turned over to Iraqi officials in Washington. The piece, a headless stone statue of the Surnerian king Entemena of Lagash, was stolen in the days after the fali of Baghdad in 2003. After the looting, Amencan officials carne under sharp criticism from archaeologists and others for not securing the rnuseum, a vast storehouse ofartifacts frorn sorne ofcivilization's first cities. The Entemena statue was taken across the border to Syria and put on sale on the international antiquities market. Thousands of looted artifacts that rernained in Iraq frorn tiny cylinder seals to the farned Warka Vase have since been returned to the museum, and a few pieces have been turned over by foreign countries, including Italy and the Netherlands. But the Entemena statue, estirnated to be 4,400 years old, is the first significant artifact returned from the United States and by far the most important piece found outside Iraq. American officials declined to discuss how they recovered the statue, saying that to do so rnight impair their efforts to retrieve other artifacts. But people with knowledge of the episode produced a narrative that included antiquities smugglers, international art dealers and an Iraqi expatriate businessrnan who was the linchpin in efforts to recover the piece and bning it to the United States. Since early June, the statue has been in an art storage warehouse in New York. American officials had planned to turn it over to the Iraqi government at a public event, said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Departrnent oforneland Security. That opportunity presented itself Tuesday when the Iraqi prime rninister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, visited Washington, where he discussed security problems in Baghdad ith President George W. Bush. In interviews over the weekend in Baghdad, Iraqi officials expressed relief that the statue of the king, which had stood in the center of the museum's second-floor Sumerian all, had been found. But the sarne officials voiced frustration at what they said was the slow pace of international cooperation on the recovery of artifacts. "I'rn overwhelmingly happy," said Liwa Sumaysim, the Iraqi antiquities minister. "We hope we get it soon so it goes back in the Iraqi museum, where it belongs." A spokesman for the Antiquities Ministry, Abdul Zahra Talqani, said the rninistry first received word of the recovery about two rnonths ago. e said that hopes had been raised in the past, after reports of the recovery of the statue in Iraq, but that those pieces turned out to be clay copies that had also been looted from the rnuseum. In June, not long after the statue was brought to the United States, two antiquities scholars were taken to the warehouse, known as The Fortress, to authenticate it. The statue, which is made ofdiorite, a hard, dark rock similar to granite, was encrusted with dirt, suggesting that it might have been concealed during its sojourn in Syria. In addition, there were fresh chips along parts of its stone surface that did not appear in historical photographs, indicating recent damage. Mohsen assan, an expert at the museum's commission on antiquities, said that the statue, which weighs hundreds of pounds, was the heaviest piece stolen from the museum and that looters probably rolled or slid it down marble stairs to remove it, smashing the steps and damaging other artifacts. The statue of Entemena of Lagash is arnong the most important artifacts unearthed in excavations of Ur, the ancient southern city. The king is dressed in a skirt oftasseled sheepskin and his arms are crossed in prayer. Detailed inscriptions run along the figure's shoulder and back. The statue was found headless when originally excavated, and experts say its head might have been lopped off in ancient times to symbolize Ur's emancipation from Lagash. One of the experts who authenticated the statue, John Russell, a professor at the Massachusetts College ofArt in Boston, said it was not only archaeologically significant but also striking because the king's muscular arrns were sculptured in a lively, naturalistic style. Earlier sculptural styles were cruder, he said. Efforts to seil the statue began not long after it was stolen, said people with knowledge of the episode. icharn Aboutaam, an antiquities dealer who owns galleries in New York and Geneva, was approached while visiting Lebanon and shown a picture of the statue to gauge his interest in buying it, those people said. Initially, those holding the statue were seeking millions for it, one person said. Aboutaam soon discovered that it had been stolen and did not pursue the deal. It was not clear precisely when or how Aboutaarn who pleaded guilty in 2004 to a federal charge of falsifying a customs document related to a different artifact informed federal officials. e and his brother and business partner, Ali Aboutaam, declined to answer specific questions about the episode. Last year, federal prosecutors in New York contacted icham Aboutaam and expressed interest in recovering the statue, said a person with knowledge of those events. About I am agreed to help. Subsequently, he or his brother made contact with an Iraqi expatriate businessman now living in Europe. Soon, that businessman, who was referred to as the broker, became the pivotal figure in securing the statue. Littie is known about the businessman other than that he is involved in construction. But he began to shuttle among Iraq, Syria and other countries to make contact with those holding the statue and to negotiate its turnover. It was not known whether money had been paid to those holding the statue or whether promises had been made. When asked what would be done with the statue, assan, the museum official, did not hesitate. "We will fix it and put it in the same piace where it was," he said, adding that security had largely been restored at the museum, which is dose to the notorious aifa Street in a district that periodically erupts in violence. But a tour of the building over the weekend, granted reluctantly by assan, raised questions as to how the museum could function while housing valuable artifacts like the statue. A walk down a corridor toward the Sumerian all, for example, ended abruptly at a concrete wali, which sonieone had crudely crosshatched with a fingertip to simulate bricks. assan awkwardly conceded that four times since the invasion, he had been forced to wali off the collections as the only reliable means ofpreventing further looting. e had most recently put the walls up a coupie of months earlier after a mass kidnapping dose to the museum. "When things get better," he said, "we break it."