Plaques and sculptures made of ivory, bone, and bronze are also hot commodities on the international market. Jewelry with inlays and multicolored stones, ancient manuscripts, and antique hand-stamped coins also make the list.
In addition to stealing from museums, looters rob historical sites all over Iraq.
"Iraq is an area with 10,000 years of settled history," Reichel said. "As a very conservative estimate, there are at least 25,000 major archaeological sites. Trying to protect all of those areas is a monumental task."
It's not just the theft that causes concern. The way in which objects are looted is at the heart of the problem.
"Looters are not careful when they are excavating objects, like an archaeologist would be. A looter just digs a hole and steals what's there. The context of the objects is destroyed, and with that, any information we can learn from them," Jullien said. "Most people in the art world don't want to be a party to the trafficking of illegal antiquities. They just don't realize the magnitude of the problem. That's what we are hoping to change."
For more on Interpol, watch Interpol Investigates in the U.S. on Tuesday, July 6, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.
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