[NYTr] Two Galleries of Looted Baghdad Museum to Re-Open

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Only two galleries on the ground floor of the thoroughly looted museum
in Baghdad are supposed to be opening -- yet another "demonstration" of
allegedly "improved security."  Of the 15,000+ irreplaceable treasures
that were stolen or destroyed, 10,000 remain missing despite several
years of an international hunt. The curator finally gave up and left
Iraq last aummer, after sealing the museum's entrances with 3 feet of
concrete. He has no confidence in the Occupiers' assurances and opposes
the re-opening at this point. - NY Transfer]


The Times of London - Nov 25, 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2937102.ece

Reopening of looted museum signals a calmer Baghdad

by Jon Swain

NEARLY five years after it was ransacked by hordes of looters in the
wake of Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, the Iraq museum in Baghdad is about
to open its doors again.

The museum, famous for priceless antiquities representing the world’s
earliest civilisation, is scheduled to open next month, according to
its acting director, Amira Emiran.

Visits will be confined to just two galleries on the ground floor
containing Assyrian and Islamic treasures that are too large and heavy
to be easily removed. The remaining 16 galleries will remain empty and
closed and security will be tight.

Nevertheless, Iraqi and American officials are keen to portray the
opening as a sign that security in Baghdad has improved after the chaos
of the past few years. 

Emiran announced the opening at a gathering of experts at the United
Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (Unesco) in
Paris to discuss measures to save Iraq’s antiquities from looting and
destruction, according to The Art Newspaper.

A Unesco official said: “Dr Emiran announced that the museum would be
opening in December. But even if she says it is going to open, this has
to be treated with some circumspection. The situation is so volatile.”

The Assyrian Hall has monumental sculptures, including stone panels
from the royal palace at Khorsabad and two winged bulls. The other
large gallery that is opening, the Islamic Hall, has the eighth century
mihrab from the Al-Mansur mosque in Baghdad. It is also hoped to
display 10 monumental Parthian sculptures from Hatra in the courtyard
which links the two galleries and through which visitors will pass.

The decision was welcomed by Matthew Bogdanos, a colonel in the US
Marine Corps reserves, who investigated the theft and destruction of
thousands of artefacts from the museum and from thousands of Iraq’s
poorly protected historic sites where looting has been conducted “on an
industrial scale” since the war.

Bogdanos, a New York prosecutor, said: “I don’t know if there is any
such thing as a right or wrong moment to open the museum. But great
things are won by great risk and the museum should open and it should
stay open. If it means doubling security, then double security.”

The ransacking of the museum in April 2003 in the aftermath of the US
invasion provoked worldwide outrage. American soldiers were criticised
for watching as looters, taking advantage of the Iraqi government’s
collapse, plundered the building.

“It was as if a hurricane had hit,” said Donny George, the museum
director at the time, describing his return to the museum after it had
been plundered. “What the looters could not take, they smashed.”

Some 15,000 items vanished. In time, some priceless objects were
recovered, including the 5,200-year-old sacred vase of Warka, the
world’s oldest-known carved-stone ritual vessel, which was returned in
the back of a car.

Bogdanos believes the smuggling of antiquities from Iraq helped to fund
the insurgency. He recalled that in one raid in 2005 in Anbar province,
northwest of Baghdad, marines captured a group of insurgents in an
underground bunker and found arms and a chest of more than 30 stolen
museum items.

About 10,000 pieces remain missing despite a worldwide hunt; they
include the 8BC ivory plaque of a lioness attacking a Nubian, which is
inlaid with lapis and carnelian and overlaid with gold.

The museum was founded by Gertrude Bell, the legendary British
archaeologist and explorer, in 1923. It was considered one of the
finest in the Middle East but was rarely open to the public during most
of the last 20 years of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

George, the renowned director, who is a Christian, fled Iraq following
death threats in August last year. Before he left he sealed the museum
entrance with a 3ft-thick wall of bricks and concrete to keep out
thieves.

George yesterday questioned whether it was the right time to reopen the
museum. “If it was me I would not open it,” he said. “The priceless
artefacts inside are safe from theft or destruction so long as the
museum remains sealed.”

See some of the lost treasures of Iraq:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html