Posted on 04/16/2003 10:18:41 PM PDT by saquin
Museum Pillage Described as Devastating but Not Total
By IAN FISHER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 16 - Curators surveyed the damage at the National Museum of Iraq today, and expressed both worry at how much might have been stolen in the looting last week and tentative hope that thousands of years of Iraq's cultural heritage might not have vanished completely.
"It's not a total loss," Donny George, the director of research for the Iraqi Board of Antiquities, said in an interview today. "But some of the major masterpieces are gone."
The museum, which housed a priceless collection dating back 7,000 years to the Sumerian civilization, was looted over two days following the fall of Saddam Hussein's government. The pillaging infuriated Iraqis who complained that American troops here did little to stop it.
Two other repositories of artifacts, the National Library and a collection of old handwritten Korans, were also burned and stripped clean in what many experts believe may be an irrecoverable disaster for Islamic cultural heritage.
With the museum at last under the protection of American troops and tanks, Dr. George said today that part of the collection had been stored in vaults in the basement just before the war, though some of the heavier and more fragile items remained in the galleries. Some items were also taken elsewhere for storage.
He said looters did manage to break into the basement, but said his team of experts had only begun assessing the extent of the damage. "We have to check all the boxes to see what is lost," he said, "and that will take time, a lot of time."
Dr. George listed three treasures he said were missing: a three-foot carved Sumerian vase from 3200 B.C., a headless black statue of the Sumerian king Entemena, dating from 2600 B.C., and a carved sacred cup of the same age.
In the last several days, officials from Unesco and the British Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Mesopotamian antiquities, said they would send experts to Iraq to help assess the losses.
In New York, Dr. Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said he was gaining wide support for proposals that the museum looters be offered immunity from prosecution and some compensation if they return their loot. He said he had spoken on Tuesday with Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, about efforts to recover the artifacts.
"He agreed that immunity and compensation was the way to go," Dr. de Montebello said of Mr. Rove, who did not indicate what, if anything, the White House was prepared to do.
In one possibly encouraging sign, several people in the Al Awi neighborhood that surrounds the museum said they did not see looters leave with any antiquities, even amid gun battles and looting that lasted two days.
An imam who lives behind the museum said he stood outside the museum for several hours on the first day of the looting, begging them to stop. "I kept reminding them that this is their country and it was against Islam to steal," said the imam, who asked not to be identified.
But he said the only items from the collection he saw stolen were several old rifles. Mostly, he said, he saw looters take chairs, typewriters, ceiling lamp fixtures and other items from the museum's offices, as happened at nearly every other government office in the capital.
Abed El Rahman, a museum security guard who lives on the premises, also said that rifles were the only items he saw stolen from the collections. "But many people were carrying boxes," he said. "I don't know what was in the boxes."
Mr. Rahman began to cry when asked what the museum was like before it was looted. "It was beautiful," he said. "The museum is civilization."
Well, obviously that didn't work with Iraqi looters. These aren't Americans or Brits looting everything that isn't red-hot or nailed down.
Bwahahahaha!
If the Iraqis were so concerned about possible looting at this museum, why didn't they guard it themselves? The U.S. military had their hands full with another activity at the time, something called WAR.
Wake up and see the facts; instead of promulgating emontional nonsense and illogical drivel.
For the past week, or so, hysterics here, in the newspapers, T.V., and GOD only knows where else, have been trashing President Bush, his team, the military, and American for not having placed a battelion around the museum ; claiming that the looting caused unimaginable damage to irreplaceable antiquities,that the world simply could not live without, due to the magnitude of the wealth of knowledge they held. This has been debated, in thread after thread, with a few hand wringing whingers , who don't know much about antiquities, what other museums have, nor even the history of Sumer, going into hyperventilating hysterics. This newly posted info throws all of THAT into a cocked hat; so to speack and shows them all up.
No, your post wasn't " highlighting " anyone's " hypocritical attitude regarding Islam " ! I wouldn't have a fit if an old Bible or two were burned. There are plenty of them; just as there are a HUGE number of rather early, middle, and late Korans out there...in museums, mosques, libraries, and private collectors' hands. They are available; so available, that if you asked me if I could get my hands on one tomorrow, my answer would be, if you want it, I'll give you the phone number and you can have it as soon as you either go to one of their three shops, or make a phone call.
Why don't YOU not get all emotionally bent out of shape over a slight, which was neither written nor thought of ?
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