Mayer Museum for Islamic Art

In this undated photo released by The British Museum Monday Feb. 8, 2010 is seen the Cyrus Cylinder, a 6th century B.C. clay tablet which is thought to be the world's earliest bill of rights. Iran said it will cut ties with the British Museum Monday because of the museum's failure to lend Tehran the ancient Babylonian artifact. The spat over the loan has long festered between London and Tehran, and comes against the backdrop of increasingly tense Iranian British relations. Tehran is under heavy pressure from the West over its nuclear program, and has accused Britain and other foreign governments of interference in domestic policies and of stoking the country's postelection street protests. The artifact is a 6th century B.C. clay tablet with an account in cuneiform of the conquest of Babylon by Persian King Cyrus the Great. It describes how Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and restored many of the people held captive by the Babylonians to their homelands. Called the Cyrus Cylinder, it has been described by the U.N. Web site and elsewhere as the world's oldest human rights document. According to officials in Iran, the piece was to have been lent to Tehran by Sunday for an exhibition agreed on by the museum and the Iranian government. (AP Photo/British Museum

FILE An undated photo provided by the J. Paul Getty Museum shows The Victorious Youth statue, which dates from 300 B.C. 100 B.C., whose ownership has been a source of dispute between the Italian government and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. An Italian court on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010 ordered the statue seized so it can be returned to Italy, officials said.The Los Angeles museum said it would appeal the decision. (AP Photo/ J. Paul Getty Museum, File)

FILE In this photo provided by the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Nov. 3, 2008, a gold and rock crystal pocket watch made for the French queen Marie Antoinette by the famed watchmaker Abraham Louis Breguet, seen, one of the items returned after Israeli police detectives have cracked a legendary clock heist at a Jerusalem museum after a 25 year search. Nili Shamrat has been convicted of receiving stolen property in a 27 year old case involving the Mona Lisa of historical watches and 105 other expensive watches and museum artifacts. (AP Photo/L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art) NO SALES

FILE This photo provided by the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Nov. 3, 2008 shows a pistol shaped clock made by the Rochat Brothers in the early 19th century, and one of the items returned after Israeli police detectives cracked a legendary clock heist at a Jerusalem museum after a 25 year search. Nili Shamrat has been convicted of receiving stolen property in a 27 year old case involving the Mona Lisa of historical watches and 105 other expensive watches and museum artifacts. (AP Photo/L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art/HO) NO SALES