The British Museum’s former director, Hartwig Fischer, has approved the loan of the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem from 4 October to 28 November 2024. Given the Cylinder’s history, its political misappropriations to which the Museum has previouslyobjected and Israel’s systematic destruction of Palestinian heritage, this loan at best acquires an ironic character and at worst endangers this invaluable artefact of Iranian and Iraqi heritage. The Museum must reconsider its decision to loan the Cylinder as it has done before. The Cylinder, excavated in Babylon in 1879…