From an interesting piece by Paul Rogers in openDemocracy.net

In the second week of December 2005 one of Saddam Hussein’s largest palace compounds – in the former dictator’s home town of Tikrit – was handed over by US forces to their Iraqi counterparts. The elaborate ceremony of this richly symbolic event included the arrival by helicopter of the American ambassador and the commander of US forces in Iraq, in order to demonstrate the success of Iraqi forces in taking on more and more security functions. Within days, however, the very Iraqi security forces that had taken charge had systematically looted the 2,000-hectare compound; truckloads of its furnishings later were found on sale up at local markets (see Ellen Knickmeyer, “After Handover, Hussein Palaces Looted”, Washington Post, 13 January 2006)