Baghdad Museum Cleanup

[mol]

Crouching over a tin trunk, Dr Ahmed Kamil gently picks up a piece of the Vase of Warka, an ancient treasure which, until this year, had survived 5,000 years of war and invasion in the land now called Iraq.

The delicately carved vase from the Sumerian kingdom of Mesopotamia lies in 14 pieces in a hot, airless storeroom in the Iraqi National Museum, a victim of the U.S.-led war which toppled Saddam Hussein in April.

In the final days of the war, looters broke into the museum and stole or vandalised thousands of artefacts charting mankind's development in the "Cradle of Civilisation" between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Continue:
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1063760705nL1632646&Section=Main&page=Home&channel=Features%2C%20Analysis%20%26%20Interviews&objectid=C5C3675B-FF61-11D4-867D00D0B74A0D7C

[Traknavar]

Didn't i read/hear somewhere that all of the truely 'priceless' items where stolen by the museum workers themselves?

[WtchyChick13]

I actually know someone on the team for this. They are shipping many of the artifacts to Syria (and some other locations) and will be cataloguing them there until it's safe to bring them back.

Many of the items were looted, but there are still countless treasures that can be restored. :)

[SylverStar]

Didn't i read/hear somewhere that all of the truely 'priceless' items where stolen by the museum workers themselves?

There were a few items that are stolen or missing that were priceless. I can't remember what they were though. This kind of stuff really saddens me. War destroys so much history. I always picture the library in Alexandria going up in flames so many years ago, and how much we lost.

[mol]

The Lady of Warka, one the two most precious relics looted from the Iraqi National Museum in the chaos that followed the April 9 fall of Baghdad, has been recovered by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police, the head of Iraq's Antiquities Department said on Thursday.

The 3,200-year-old artifact, which is a representation of female face, was found buried in an orchard on the outskirts of Baghdad after the Antiquities Department was tipped off by people who had reported seeing it there.

Continue:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3162242,00.html

[WtchyChick13]

Didn't i read/hear somewhere that all of the truely 'priceless' items where stolen by the museum workers themselves?


How's THIS for perfect timing? I got my Lapidary Journal yesterday and this little tidbit was in it:

IRAQI MUSEUM REOPENS BRIEFLY

On July 3, the Iraq Museum in Baghdad reopened for a speial one-day exhibition after teh museum had closed with the advent of war and amidst stories of widespread looting. Althought the exhibition was temporary, it served to reassure the public that the museum's collections are being recovered and preserved; officials hope to reopen the museum within a year or two.

Some of the items on display had recently been returned under an amnesty program that allowed people to return stolen goods to the museum with no fear of arrest or prsecution. The "no questions asked" program had seen the return of almost 3,000 items, with over 12,000 still missing from the museum's storerooms.

Among the items exhibited was the Treasure of Numrud, a collection of gold crowns, bracelets, cups, and pendants considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. The pieces were unearthed by Italian archaeologists beginning in 1988, and were only on display a few months before being placed in the museum's vault with the advent of the first gulf War; this is the first time the collection has been on public diplay since that time.



Cool eh???? :D