National Museum of Iraq

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An American Tank guards the Museum following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
An American Tank guards the Museum following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

The National Museum of Iraq (Arabic,المتحف الوطني العراقي )is located in Baghdad, Iraq.

Contents

[edit] Foundation

It was established by the British traveller and author Gertrude Bell and opened shortly before her death in 1926. It was originally known as the Baghdad Archaeological Museum.

[edit] Collections

Because of the archaeological riches of Mesopotamia, its collections are amongst the most important in the world; and it has a fine record of scholarship and display. The British connection with the museum (and with Iraq) means that exhibits have always been displayed bilingually (English and Arabic). It contains important artifacts from the over 5,000 year long history of Mesopotamia in 28 galleries and vaults.

[edit] Recent history

Closed in 1991 during the Gulf War, out of fear of further U.S. air-strikes it was not re-opened until April 28, 2000, former President Saddam Hussein's birthday.

[edit] Damage and losses during 2003 war

In the months preceding the 2003 Iraq war, starting in December and January, various antiquities experts, including representatives from the American Council for Cultural Policy asked The Pentagon and the UK government to ensure the museum's safety from both combat and looting. Although promises were not made, U.S. forces did avoid bombing the site.

On 8 April 2003 the last of the museum staff left the museum. Iraqi forces, in violation of Geneva Conventions, engaged U.S. forces from within the museum, as well as the nearby Special Republican Guard compound. Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz of the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division stated that he was unable to enter the compound and secure it since they attempted to avoid returning fire at the building. Sniper positions, discarded ammunition, and 15 Iraqi Army uniforms were later discovered in the building. Iraqi forces had built a fortified wall along the western side of the compound, allowing concealed movement between the front and rear of the museum. [1]

Thefts took place between 8 April and 12 April, when some staff returned to the building. U.S. forces, headed by Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, entered the compound on 16 April, and initiated an investigation on 21 April. His investigation indicated that despite claims to the contrary, no U.S. forces had looted the building, and that there were three separate thefts by three distinct groups over the 4 days. While the staff instituted a storage plan to prevent theft and damage (also used during the Iran-Iraq War and the first Gulf War), many larger statues, steles, and friezes had been left in the public galleries, protected with foam and surrounded by sandbags. Forty pieces were stolen from these galleries, mostly the more valuable. Of these 13 have been recovered as of January 2005, including the three most valuable - the Sacred Vase of Warka, the Mask of Warka, and the Bassetki Statue.[1]

Second, the musem's aboveground storage rooms were looted; the exterior steel doors showed no signs of forced entry. Approximately 3,100 excavation site pieces (jars, vessels, pottery shards, etc.) were stolen, of which over 3,000 have been recoverd. The thefts did not appear to be discriminating; for example, an entire shelf of fakes was stolen, while an adjacent shelf of much greater value was undisturbed.[1]

The third occurrence of theft was in the underground storage rooms, where evidence pointed to an inside job. The thieves attempted to steal the most easily transportable objects, which had been intentionally stored in the most remote location possible. Of the four rooms, the only portion disturbed was a single corner in the furthest room, where cabinets contained 100 small boxes containing cylinder seals, beads, and jewelry. Evidence indicated that the thieves possessed keys to the cabinets but dropped them in the dark. Instead, they stole 10,000 small objects that were lying in plastic boxes on the floor. Of them, nearly 2,500 have been recovered.[1]

[edit] International reaction to the looting

The U.S. government was criticised for doing nothing to protect the museum after occupying Baghdad. Dr. Irving Finkel of the British Museum said the looting was "entirely predictable and could easily have been stopped." Martin Sullivan, chairman of the U.S. President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, and State Department cultural advisor Gary Vikan both resigned in protest.

The extent of the looting of Iraq's National Museum has been disputed but all sources agree that it took place. Telegraph reported in 2003:

"Officials at the National Museum of Iraq have blamed shoddy reporting amid the "fog of war" for creating the impression that the majority of the institution's 170,000 items were looted in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad.
A carefully prepared storage plan, used in the Iran-Iraq war and the first Gulf war, ensured that tens of thousands of pieces were saved, they said. They now believe that the number of items taken was in the low thousands, and possibly hundreds."

A figure of hundreds was, however, abandoned when later official and coalition sources (referred to below) suggested that between 3,000 and 10,000 items were unaccounted for.

When asked why the U.S. military did not try to guard the museum in the days after the invasion succeeded, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "If you remember, when some of that looting was going on, people were being killed, people were being wounded.... It's as much as anything else a matter of priorities." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who described the period of looting in general as "untidiness", said of the museum's looting, "To try to pass off the fact of that unfortunate activity to a deficit in the war plan strikes me as a stretch." Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "The United States understands its obligations and will be taking a leading role with respect to antiquities in general but this museum in particular."

Dr. Donny George, General Director Research Studies for the Board of Antiquities in Iraq, said of the looting, "It's the crime of the century, because it affects the heritage of all mankind". After the U.S. Marines set up headquarters in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, George said he went there to plead for troops to protect the remainder of the Museum collection, but no guards were sent for another three days. Whether or not this is due to continued fighting is unclear.

[edit] Attempts to recover lost items

A few days later, agents of the FBI were sent to Iraq to search for stolen Museum property.

UNESCO organized an emergency meeting of antiquities experts on April 17, 2003 in Paris to deal with the aftermath of the looting and its effects on the global art and antiquities market.

On April 18, 2003, the Baghdad Museum Project was formed in the United States with a proposal to assure the National Museum of Iraq every possibility of the eventual safe return of its collection, even if that is to take hundreds of years. Rather than focus only on law enforcement and the current antiquities market, the group seeks to (1) establish a comprehensive online catalog of all cultural artifacts in the museum's collection, (2) create a virtual Baghdad Museum that is accessible to the general public over the Internet, (3) build a 3D collaborative workspace within the virtual Baghdad Museum for design and fundraising purposes, and (4) establish a resource center within the virtual Baghdad Museum for community cultural development.

Various ancient items believed looted from the museum have surfaced in Jordan, the United States, Switzerland, and Japan, and on eBay. Among those arrested for attempting to bring looted antiquities into the United States were a reporter and a camera man for Fox News.

On May 7, 2003, U.S. officials announced that nearly 40,000 manuscripts and 700 artifacts belonging to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad were recovered by U.S. Customs agents working with museum experts in Iraq. Some looters had returned items after promises of rewards and amnesty, and many items previously reported missing had actually been hidden in secret storage vaults at the museum prior to the outbreak of war.

On June 7, 2003, U.S. authorities announced that world famous treasures of Nimrud were recovered from a secret vault in Iraq's Central Bank. The artifacts included necklaces, plates, gold earrings, finger and toe rings, bowls and flasks. Officials said that of the 170,000 items initially believed missing, just 3,000 remained unaccounted for. And, of those, 47 were main exhibition artifacts.

In November, 2003 Coalition officials reported a few dozen of the most important items remained missing from the museum's public galleries, along with another 10,000 other items -- most of them tiny and some of them fragments.

[edit] Recent work

At various Iraq reconstruction conferences, the Baghdad Museum Project gave presentations to the reconstruction community advocating preservation of Iraq's cultural heritage in rebuilding projects.

In February 2006, the museum published a three volume set entitled "The Wikipedia Muhammed Cartoons Debate" containing, in full, the discussion between Wikipedia editors on whether to include controversial images of the prophet in the Wikipedia article about the wider controversy sparked by those images [1].

On August 27, 2006, Iraq's museum director Donny George Youkhana fled the country to Syria, claiming "pressure to follow a radical Islamic agenda in the preservation of Iraqi antiquities made his position impossible." [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Bogdanos, Matthew (January 2005). "Pieces of the Cradle". Marine Corps Gazette (January 2005): 60-66. 

[edit] External links

[edit] News and editorials

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