When the Kingdom of Iraq was established after World War I, it was at first administered by the British. An Antiquities Law was drafted which said that any unique find excavated by a foreign expedition would remain in Iraq, and the remainder would be divided equally between the expedition and the Iraq Museum. This attracted many archaeologists and Woolley's excavations at Ur benefited from this arrangement, with the British Museum and the University Museum in Philadelphia dividing the expedition's share of the finds. After the British Mandate ended in 1931, the Antiquities Law was changed and for a number of years all finds had to remain in Iraq. This affected the Ur excavations. Foreign museums were less interested in funding excavations in Iraq and many excavators moved to adjacent countries, such as Syria, where division of finds still existed. Some foreign expeditions continued to work in Iraq, but this ceased during World War II. However, a group of young Iraqi archaeologists continued to excavate, but their very limited budget meant that they had to concentrate on smaller sites. However, the results were extremely interesting. After the war, following the Iraqi lead, and due to financial stringencies, the excavation of small sites continued, although the British returned to the large site of Nimrud. The division of finds was resumed.

Since 1958, Iraq has been a Republic. Excavations continued despite yet another change in the Antiquities Law in 1969 which meant that all finds had to remain in Iraq. Excavation continued throughout the war between Iraq and Iran (1979-1988). However, the Gulf war (1991) and the sanctions which followed made it impossible for foreign expeditions to work in Iraq. Despite attempts by Iraqi archaeologists to protect archaeological sites, illegal digging and looting became common with objects being smuggled out of the country and sold. We do not know where most of these objects were found, whether they come from houses, temples, palaces or burials, and so they have lost their historical value. In some cases, however, objects were looted from museums and pieces have been cut out of Assyrian reliefs which decorated the open-air museum created in the Palace Without Rival of Sennacherib at Nineveh, leaving gaping holes and irreparable damage. Some responsible people and museums have arranged for the return of looted objects, but others have relied on the fact that fighting cases in the law-courts, even where ownership is indisputable, is an expensive process which Iraq can ill afford.