5,000-year-old looted mask returned to Iraq's museum

Hindustan Times ^ | September 23 2003 | AFP

[knighthawk]

Iraq's most cherished antiquity, the 5,000-year-old Warka Mask, was returned home on Tuesday after being looted during the anarchy that accompanied the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April.

Captain Vance Kuhner said the mask was found after an intensive search by US troops and Iraqi police that led them to a farm just north of Baghdad where it was discovered buried under six inches of dirt.

"A tip-off came to the museum, we were given an address that led us to a juvenile, then an older man and eventually the culprit. Then it took a week of negotiations," Kuhner said.

"It's pretty much untouched. We believe it changed hands several times after its theft. It is still in excellent condition."

Also known as the "Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia," the 20-centimetre high limestone sculpture, dating from 3100 BC, depicts the head of a woman and was returned to Iraq's National Museum in a formal handover.

It was fashioned in the southern city of Warka during the Sumerian period, and was among the five most precious pieces still missing since the museum was sacked after the April 9 fall of Saddam Hussein.

Jaaber Kalil Ibrahim, Iraq's director general of antiquities, said about 13,000 pieces are still to be found, 32 of them of great value, out of 15,000 pieces stolen from the collection of 170,000 artifacts.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Argus]

It won't be long before the Iraqis are returning artifacts to the museum that were never there in the first place.

[Diogenesis]

Most of this "theft" was MADE UP (fabricated) by the Boston Globe
and its rabidly Blairing New York Times.

[knighthawk]

Yes, they said all 170.000 pieces were looted.

[Wright is right!]

I guess the Hindustan Times hasn't yet caught up with the real world yet. The actual count of stuff missing from the museo is 27. Now it's down to 26. There have been many press reports quietly debunking the idea that many thousands of objets were looted.

Michael

[LibWhacker]

[Shermy]

Too hot to handle.

The insiders who stole some smaller trinkets of not-too-shocking-value understood the criminal marketplace.

[cake_crumb]

15,000? Down from 150,000. Guess they were going for a more realistic number since the first one was so unrealistic.

The whole thing was fabricated. Nothing in the news about it is trustworthy now. I still have a large collection of saved news stories from when this fantasy broke from never-never land.

Even if a few real - as opposed to the mostly FAKE - artifacts were really stolen...I could now care less. And I'm an historian. I will never forget the way people claimed our soldiers should have quit guarding the HOSPITALS and risk their lives to save a museum...from IT'S EMPLOYEES. GRRRRRRRRR....I STILL wanna knock TEEH out when I think of this EPIC FANTASY OF THE LEFT!!

[stylin19a]

The REAL reason the mask was returned (in time for Halloween)...

[cake_crumb]

Yes, 170,000...I sit corrected.

[SwinneySwitch]

That's the "Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia"?

[capydick]

I like this Warka better:

[cake_crumb]

Yeah, but it's India. The press reports I read from India have been about on par with German and French anti-war crap. Putin's calling the shots, but I doubt that even he has that much influence.

[cake_crumb]

Ugly isn't it? You can't even tell it's a woman.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Moments later a man with a green head was seen leaving quickly saying "Somebody stop me!!!" While policeman nearby were seen doing "The Mambo."

[P.O.E.]

It had probably sunk into the quagmire before they fished it out.

[solzhenitsyn]

Ugly isn't it? You can't even tell it's a woman.

Well, don't tell President Clinton. He thinks she's hotter than the Incan mummy! No artifact is safe ...

[knighthawk]

The story is from AFP.

[knighthawk]

The press reports I read from India have been about on par with German and French anti-war crap

They put up a lot of AFP articles. Maybe that explains a lot.