At least 8,000 treasures looted from Iraq museum still untraced (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on May, 24 2005 @ 01:50 PM

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John Curtis of the British Museum claims that half of the iconic items from the Iraqi National museum have still not been retrieved, 15,000 items were looted from the storerooms and 8,000 mueseum treasures have yet to be recovered.

news.independent.co.uk
Evidence of how quickly and irretrievably a country can be stripped of its cultural heritage came with the Iraq war in 2003.

The latest figures, presented to the art crime conference yesterday by John Curtis of the British Museum, suggested that half of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. And of at least 15,000 items looted from its storerooms, about 8,000 have yet to be traced.

About 4,000 of the objects taken from the museum had been recovered in Iraq. But illustrating the international demand for such antiquities, Dr Curtis said around 1,000 had been confiscated in the US, 500 pieces had been impounded in France, 250 in Switzerland and 200 or so in Jordan.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The artefacts that have been stolen date back from the Babylonian civilization. Authorities also state that random checks on American and British soldiers have found some in illegal possession of these treasures.

The full extent of the damage is impossible to gauge.

Zipdot

posted on May, 26 2005 @ 02:27 PM

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America's occupation of Iraq has been detrimental to many historical artifacts and locations, but so was Saddam's.

from WikiPedia
Saddam Hussein installed a huge portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins. He also had part of the ruins rebuilt, to the dismay of archaeologists, with his name inscribed in an imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, on many bricks used. One frequent inscription reads, "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq".

Dr. John Curtis describes how parts of the archaeological site were levelled to create a landing area for helicopters, and parking lots for heavy vehicles. Curtis wrote that the occupation forces

"caused substantial damage to the Ishtar Gate, one of the most famous monuments from antiquity [...] US military vehicles crushed 2,600-year-old brick pavements, archaeological fragments were scattered across the site, more than 12 trenches were driven into ancient deposits and military earth-moving projects contaminated the site for future generations of scientists [...] Add to all that the damage caused to nine of the moulded brick figures of dragons in the Ishtar Gate by people trying to remove the bricks from the wall."

Heh, ouch.

Zip

Nygdan

posted on May, 26 2005 @ 02:46 PM

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Truth is, with an open democratic society, there will be a quantum leap in the study of the ancient history of Iraq. The loss of these items is great. Also keep in mind that many were stolen and sold by museum staff. Overtime, more will be recovered. Many that were originally stolen have been recovered.

Moretti

posted on May, 26 2005 @ 02:50 PM

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As Galloway reported in his senate hearing, around 10billion worth of iraqi assets were stolen by the Bush administration shortly after the invasion.

www.informationclearinghouse.info...