Artist asks British Museum to return Assyrian treasure to Iraq in swap

Sculptor Michael Rakowitz says he will give his fourth-plinth bull to Tate Modern if Iraq can share custody

The Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz has proposed in a letter to the British Museum that it return one of its ancient Assyrian treasures to Iraq in exchange for the donation of his fourth plinth sculpture to the UK.

Rakowitz's contemporary interpretation of an Assyrian winged bull, known as a lamassu, decorated in tins of date syrup, appeared on the plinth in Trafalgar Square from 2018 to 2020.