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The National Museum of Iraq is located in Baghdad, Iraq. Image File history File links US Dept of State Photo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links US Dept of State Photo File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
This article regards the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ...
Baghdad ( translit: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ...
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. Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (July 14, 1868–July 12, 1926) was a British woman who had a major hand in creating the modern state of Iraq. ...
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. Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ...
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. Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf Saddam Hussein Strength 660,000 360,000 Casualties 345 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War (1990–1991) was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of approximately 30 nations[1] led by the...
April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ...
This article is about the year 2000. ...
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. Antiquity means different things: Generally it means ancient history, and may be used of any period before the Middle Ages. ...
American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP) is formed of a group of wealthy and politically influential antiquities dealers, collectors and lawyers in the United States, with its headquarters in New York and representatives in Washington D.C. The original goal of this organization was to relax the cultural heritage laws...
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located at 48 N. Rotary Road, Arlington, Virginia 22211 (Map). ...
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 Mks of Warka, and the Bassetki Statue.[1] Matthew Bogdanos is head of the NYPDs antiquities task force and a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...
Combatants UN Coalition Republic of Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf Saddam Hussein Strength 660,000 360,000 Casualties 345 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 dead, 75,000 wounded The Gulf War (1990–1991) was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of approximately 30 nations[1] led by the...
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]
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 centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Buro Happold and Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...
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." General Richard B. Myers General Richard Bowman Myers (born March 1, 1942) of the United States Air Force is a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Americas highest ranking military officer. ...
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is the 21st and current United States Secretary of Defense. ...
General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret. ...
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. The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the U.S. military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces to global crises. ...
The Palestine Hotel is a 18-story hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. ...
Attempts to recover lost items A few days later, agents of the FBI were sent to Iraq to search for stolen Museum property. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...
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. UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ...
April 17 is the 107th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (108th in leap years). ...
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. April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ...
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
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. eBay headquarters in San Jose eBay North First Street satellite office campus (home to PayPal) eBay Inc. ...
Illicit antiquities are artefacts of archaeological interest, found in illegal or unregulated excavations, and traded covertly. ...
Fox News Channels slogan is We Report, You Decide The Fox News Channel is a U.S. cable and satellite news channel. ...
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. May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ...
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ...
I archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ...
United States is the current Good Article Collaboration of the week! Please help to improve this article to the highest of standards. ...
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. June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ...
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. ...
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.
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]
References - ^ a b c d Bogdanos, Matthew (January 2005). "Pieces of the Cradle". Marine Corps Gazette (January 2005): 60-66.
External links - The Iraq Museum Official web presence of the National Museum of Iraq
- Lost Treasures from Iraq Illustrated site by University of Chicago
- The 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology
- Media blamed for exaggerating loss of antiquities
- Bogdanos, Matthew. The Casualties of War: The Truth about the Iraq Museum American Journal of Archaeology, 109, 3 (July 2005)
- Bogdanos, Matthew. Thieves of Baghdad - and of the World's Cultural Property
- IraqCrisis: A moderated list for communicating substantive information on cultural property damaged, destroyed or lost from Libraries and Museums in Iraq during and after the war in April 2003, and on the worldwide response to the crisis.
News and editorials - The Ghost in the Baghdad Museum, The New York Times, April 2, 2006 by Roger Cohen
- Thousands of Iraqi artifacts found, CNN, May 7, 2003
- Missing Antiquities: Loss Estimates Are Cut on Iraqi Artifacts, but Questions Remain, The New York Times, May 1, 2003
- Relics: Experts' Pleas to Pentagon Didn't Save Museum, The New York Times, April 16, 2003
- Antiquities: Curators Appeal for a Ban on Purchase of Iraqi Artifacts, The New York Times, April 16, 2003
- Hundreds of looted items returned to Iraqi museum, CNN Web Site, November 11, 2003
- Iraq and Ruin, The Guardian, May 2, 2003, Neal Ascherson interview with Donny George
- Donny George: A Real-Life Treasure Hunt, Newsweek, March 21, 2005
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