NEW YORK, NY.- In cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, artist Michael Rakowitz and public arts presenter Creative Time facilitated the return of dinner plates once belonging to Saddam Hussein to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations in New York City. The plates were most recently used in an artist-chef collaboration entitled Spoils, featured at New York’s Park Avenue Autumn restaurant from September 28 through November 26 of this year. Rakowitz, who is of Iraqi-Jewish descent, collaborated with Park Avenue Autumn Chef Kevin Lasko on Spoils, a culinary experience that aimed to connect the history of the United States and Iraq through the timeless experience of food, the more recent link of conflict, and to explore the tensions between the diner’s tongue, the sweetness of the Iraqi date syrup, and the complicated–even bitter–history of the dishware. Rakowitz s