Recent history provides rich sources for Baghdad's antique market. After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, goods from the neighboring country's wealthy homes and its national museum — famed for Islamic art and Quranic manuscripts — were hauled back here. More treasures came with the looting of Iraq's own national museum and Saddam Hussein's palaces in the lawless days after the American-led invasion of 2003.

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Some of the best evidence of better days can be found by climbing the shaky stairs to al-Khafaf's shop on a street along the River Tigris in Baghdad's old quarter. Sitting under a coat of dust on the shop's floor are silver-plated brass boxes in which wealthy women kept their toiletries and engraved water pitchers that the rich used to wash guests' hands after feasts.

Also on offer are floral-shaped silver candlesticks fashioned by Baghdad's renowned Jewish craftsmen, members of a religious community that went back more than two millennia and numbered upwards of 100,000 in the 1930s. Now it has been reduced to just a few people by the discrimination of ultra-nationalist governments and the lure of living in Israel.

"The Jewish craftsmen of Baghdad were at their best with silver and gold," said al-Khafaf, explaining a one-time informal division of specialization among artisans of different religious communities. "Muslims, on the other hand, were best with brass," said the 48-year-old, who has a day job as a veterinarian.

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In the downtown antique shops, there also are fine china tea sets bearing images of Faisal II, the last of Iraq's kings. Faisal II was murdered along with close family members in a 1958 military coup that heralded the start of years of political instability, genocide and human rights abuses. Complete sets can sell for $1,000.

It is with great regret that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair and Grosvenor House announce that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair will no longer be continued.

For 75 years the hotel and the art and antiques trade have enjoyed a happy and productive relationship, but it has been decided in consultation with the British Antique Dealers’ Association and The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair Executive Committee that the Fair is no longer financially viable. The closure of this much- loved fair, however, presents an opportunity for the trade to mount a new event commensurate with maintaining London as the centre of the art market.

"It has been a privilege for Grosvenor House to host the Art & Antiques Fair for so long and I am delighted we were able to celebrate its 75th anniversary together", said Anthony Stewart-Moore, General Manager of the hotel, "I would like to pay tribute to Simon Phillips and the Executive Committee of the Fair as well as its long-standing Director, Alison Vaissière and her organising team for working so hard for so many years to produce one of the finest art and antiques fairs in the world."

Simon Phillips, Chairman of the Fair, said that the 2009 event had been a great success and commented: "It is a great disappointment to me that The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair has come to an end. I quite understand that it no longer makes financial sense to continue the Fair. It has been a very long and happy partnership but most great events have a lifespan and a Diamond Anniversary is a fitting point on which to end on a positive note."

The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair was launched in September 1934 to great acclaim. It was a groundbreaking event setting the standards that all others strived to follow. The final Fair – an acknowledged success - was held in June 2009.

Antique stores are becoming something of an antique themselves: The number that specialize in furnishings at least 100 years old - the generally accepted definition of an antique - is declining, said Connie Swaim of AntiqueWeek. Walk some of the local antiquing districts, and one can sense that.

For antiquers, the closure of shops threatens a beloved pastime: browsing crowded aisles in search of the perfect find. Stores such as Connoisseur are becoming harder to find as tastes shift away from bronze and crystal chandeliers, terra cotta lions, marble sculpture and other ornate period looks.