In 2006, the British Museum will lend a priceless clay drum known as the Cyrus Cylinder to Iran for several months. It will be the second time the artifact has been lent to Iran, and hopefully, it won’t be as eventful as the first: back in 1971, the British Museum found itself in the middle of some serious international intrigue when it “decided to lend the antiquity without consulting the Foreign Office, and the UK government later feared that the Iranians would refuse to return it.” The real story of what occurred in the ’70s has only just been declassified in Britain, and UK museum officials have been stunned by the extent to which international politics played a role.