Saddam Hussein's Rifle on Display in Britain for the First Time Since Its Disappearance

A gold-plated AK-47 rifle believed to have belonged to the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will be displayed to the public for the first time in Britain. According to a report by CBC News, Hussein and his sons gave the shiny rifle to "people they wanted to influence," according to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, northern England, which will showcase the weapon as part of a new exhibition starting December 16. The museum states that the assault rifle came from a royal palace in Iraq and was discovered by British customs officers at Heathrow Airport in 2003, along with a grenade launcher, six bayonets, and a sniper rifle. Reportedly, the weapons were in containers marked to indicate they contained computers. The exhibition at the Royal Armouries examines the intersection of weapons and art and will open nearly 20 years after U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003.