The National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad has reopened its doors to the public.

At the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: “I thank all the countries which are standing by Iraq and helping to return the smuggled antiquities as part of an international campaign to return Iraq’s heritage.

“We want to make our museum a place which will be at the forefront of international museums. There’s a long road ahead of us. There are a lot of discoveries still being made at archaeological sites all around Iraq.”

During the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, around 15,000 of the museum’s 501,000 artefacts were stolen.

It is thought that around two thirds of the missing pieces were taken by staff before the US troops arrived in Iraq, while 5,000 pieces were taken by outside looters in the immediate aftermath.

In a bid to recompense for international criticism of the ineffectual protection of the museum by American troops, the Baghdad Museum Project was set up in the US to help locate and return the missing collections.

The majority of the robbed items were subsequently found in the US, Jordan, Switzerland and Japan but, according to UNESCO, almost 7,000 pieces are thought to be still missing, including about 40 to 50 of great historical importance.