About 7 or 8 years ago, U.S. troops in Iraq found a approx. 900 year old copy of a set of Shas in the flooded basement of an Iraqi police station. It was flooded from the war damage. They eventually brought it to the U.S. to dry and restore. They agreed to return it to the Iraqis once restored, though I don’t know if it was returned.
The story was covered by the U.S. media, including nunerous articles in the N.Y. Times.