Mohammad Ghani Hikmat, (April 20, 1929 – September 12, 2011) (Arabic, محمد غني حكمت) was an Iraqi sculptor and artist credited with creating some of Baghdad's highest profile sculptures and monuments. His best known works include the Victory Arch and two statues of Queen Scheherazade and King Shahryar, located on Aby Nuwas Street. Hikmat also spearheaded the recovery of art looted from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and fall of Saddam Hussein.
Hikmut was born in 1929 in Baghdad's Kadumiya neighborhood. He graduated from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad in 1953, before completing his studies in 1957 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, Italy. Hikmut joined the Baghdad Group for Modern Art in 1953 and the Al-Zawiya Group (meaning The Corner) in 1967. Mohammed Ghani Hikmat died in Amman, Jordan, where he was receiving medical treatment, on September 12, 2011, at the age of 82.
The Arc of Triumph (Arabic: قوس النصر Qaws an-Naṣr), also called the Swords of Qādisīyah، and Hands of Victory in some Western sources, are a pair of triumphal arches in central Baghdad, Iraq. Each arch consists of a pair of hands holding crossed swords. The two arches mark the two entrances to Great Celebrations square and the parade ground constructed to commemorate the Iran-Iraq war, led by then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The arches were opened to the public on August 8, 1989. It is one of Baghdad's sights and monuments and near to The Monument to the Unknown Soldier.
