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Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure
New York Times ^ | April 12, 2003 | JOHN F. BURNS

Posted on 04/12/2003 4:24:15 PM PDT by Mister Magoo

Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure By JOHN F. BURNS

AGHDAD, Iraq, April 12 — The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters.

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The full extent of the disaster that befell the museum only came to light today, as the frenzied looting that swept much of the capital over the previous three days began to ebb.

As fires in a dozen government ministries and agencies began to burn out, and as looters tired of pillaging in the 90-degree heat of the Iraqi spring, museum officials reached the hotels where foreign journalists were staying along the eastern bank of the Tigris River. They brought word of what is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history.

A full accounting of what has been lost may take weeks or months. The museum had been closed during much of the 1990's, and like many Iraqi institutions, its operations were cloaked in secrecy under Mr. Hussein.

So what officials told journalists today may have to be adjusted as a fuller picture comes to light. It remains unclear whether some of the museum's priceless gold, silver and copper antiquities, some of its ancient stone and ceramics, and perhaps some of its fabled bronzes and gold-overlaid ivory, had been locked away for safekeeping elsewhere before the looting, or seized for private display in one of Mr. Hussein's myriad palaces.

What was beyond contest today was that the 28 galleries of the museum and vaults with huge steel doors guarding storage chambers that descend floor after floor into unlighted darkness had been completely ransacked.

Officials with crumpled spirits fought back tears and anger at American troops, as they ran down an inventory of the most storied items that they said had been carried away by the thousands of looters who poured into the museum after daybreak on Thursday and remained until dusk on Friday, with only one intervention by American troops, lasting about half an hour, at lunchtime on Thursday.

Nothing remained, museum officials said, at least nothing of real value, from a museum that had been regarded by archaeologists and other specialists as perhaps the richest of all such institutions in the Middle East.

As examples of what was gone, the officials cited a solid gold harp from the Sumerian era, which began about 3360 B.C. and started to crumble about 2000 B.C. Another item on their list of looted antiquities was a sculptured head of a woman from Uruk, one of the great Sumerian cities, dating from about the same era, and a collection of gold necklaces, bracelets and earrings, also from the Sumerian dynasties and also at least 4,000 years old.

But an item-by-item inventory of the most valued pieces carried away by the looters hardly seemed to capture the magnitude of what had occurred. More powerful, in its way, was the action of one museum official in hurrying away through the piles of smashed ceramics and torn books and burned-out torches of rags soaked in gasoline that littered the museum's corridors to find the glossy catalog of an exhibition of "Silk Road Civilizations" that was held in Japan's ancient capital of Nara in 1988.

Turning to 50 pages of items lent by the Iraqi museum for the exhibition, he said that none of the antiquities pictured remained after the looting. They included ancient stone carvings of bulls and kings and princesses; copper shoes and cuneiform tablets; tapestry fragments and ivory figurines of goddesses and women and Nubian porters; friezes of soldiers and ancient seals and tablets on geometry; and ceramic jars and urns and bowls, all dating back at least 2,000 years, some more than 5,000 years.

"All gone, all gone," he said. "All gone in two days."

An Iraqi archaeologist who has participated in the excavation of some of the country's 10,000 sites, Raid Abdul Ridhar Muhammad, said he had gone into the street in the Karkh district, a short distance from the eastern bank of the Tigris, about 1 p.m. on Thursday to find American troops to quell the looting. By that time, he and other museum officials said, the several acres of museum grounds were overrun by thousands of men, women and children, many of them armed with rifles, pistols, axes, knives and clubs, as well as pieces of metal torn from the suspensions of wrecked cars. The crowd was storming out of the complex carrying antiquities on hand carts, bicycles and wheelbarrows and in boxes. Looters stuffed their pockets with smaller items.

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Mr. Muhammad said he found an American Abrams tank in Museum Square, about 300 yards away, and that five marines had followed him back into the museum and opened fire above the looters' heads. This drove several thousand of the marauders out of the museum complex in minutes, he said, but when the tank crewmen left about 30 minutes later, the looters returned.

"I asked them to bring their tank inside the museum grounds," he said. "But they refused and left. About half an hour later, the looters were back, and they threatened to kill me, or to tell the Americans that I am a spy for Saddam Hussein's intelligence, so that the Americans would kill me. So I was frightened, and I went home."

Mr. Muhammad spoke with deep bitterness toward the Americans, as have many Iraqis who have watched looting that began with attacks on government agencies and the palaces and villas of Mr. Hussein, his family and his inner circle broaden into a tidal wave of looting that targeted just about every government institution, even ministries dealing with issues like higher education, trade and agriculture, and hospitals.

American troops have intervened only sporadically, as they did on Friday to halt a crowd of men and boys who were raiding an armory at the edge of the Republican Palace presidential compound and taking brand-new Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.

American commanders have said they lack the troops to curb the looting while their focus remains on the battles across Baghdad that are necessary to mop up pockets of resistance from paramilitary troops loyal to Mr. Hussein.

Mr. Muhammad, the archaeologist, directed much of his anger at President Bush. "A country's identity, its value and civilization resides in its history," he said. "If a country's civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends. Please tell this to President Bush. Please remind him that he promised to liberate the Iraqi people, but that this is not a liberation, this is a humiliation."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ancienthistory; antiquities; art; godsgravesglyphs; interimauthority; iraq; iraqifreedom; looting; museums
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To: mrsmith
"a planned museum robbery."

Paging Murph the Surf, pick up the courtesy phone please.
21 posted on 04/12/2003 5:30:15 PM PDT by APBaer
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To: JoeFromCA
This truly is tragic. A lot of what has been taken will never be seen again--lost to civilization forever. I'm sure most of the looters are ignorant people who will break up priceless artifacts and sell the pieces as junk metal. This is kind of the same mentality of the looters who took hospital equipment to sell as scrap. People stealing Saddam's golden doorknobs is one thing--I can laugh at that. Ancient artifacts are eveyone's heritage. We are all diminished by their loss.
22 posted on 04/12/2003 5:34:01 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (Lurking since 1997!)
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Comment #23 Removed by Moderator

To: Mister Magoo
Mr. Muhammad, the archaeologist, directed much of his anger at President Bush. "A country's identity, its value and civilization resides in its history," he said. "If a country's civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends. Please tell this to President Bush. Please remind him that he promised to liberate the Iraqi people, but that this is not a liberation, this is a humiliation."

How about thanking CNN for their failure to report the events of the past. Events that if they had been reported would likely have led to the dethroning of Saddam years ago!

Now then, how about thanking the French, Germans, and Russians who supported the Saddam Hussein regime for decades. Their deceit and lies perpetuated the existence of Saddam's dictatorship, and his subsequent torture of the Iraqi people for years.

Mr. Muhammad, you self-righteous idiot, go stuff it up your ...! It is not our fault that "your people" looted "their treasures".

Another shining example of the New York Times trying to besmerch the shining successes of America's campaign to free the people of Iraq. Shameless commie-lib bastards!
24 posted on 04/12/2003 5:51:51 PM PDT by Duramaximus ( American Born, Gun_Toting , Aerospace Worker - - The New York Times Is The Anti-Christ)
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To: JoeFromCA
Actually few if any of these priceless artifacts will ever be found. Similar looting occurred after the Gulf War, with thousands of items stolen, and only about 4 were ever found. A few items will find their way into private collections, but most will simply be used and abused until they disappear, if not melted down or disassembled for trinket value. These items did not represent Arabic or Muslim history, but rather represented the history of the world.

Many of those "priceless" artifacts were found in Jordan after the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein had total control over everything in that museum, including funding and physical control. I would not be surprised if some of the artifacts also show up in Jordan, again.

25 posted on 04/12/2003 5:52:07 PM PDT by Lauratealeaf (Iraqis say, Good, Very Good, Bush Good!)
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To: Mister Magoo
Don't worry, antiquities lovers, most of the good Sumerian and Assyrian artefacts have been in the British Museum in London for decades now.

Many others are in other European and American museums as well. Western archaeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries picked the place pretty dry, and not much was left "in situ". For reasons that are now pretty obvious.

26 posted on 04/12/2003 6:08:31 PM PDT by UncleSamUSA (the land of the free and the home of the brave)
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To: UncleSamUSA
And someone tell that idiot Mr. Muhammad that he ought to be blaming Saddam for the humiliation of the Iraqi people - who were enslaved by a sadistic dictator for 25 years and had to be "liberated" by a hated American military power against the will of almost the entire Arab world.

That is MY definition of humiliation, chum. We liberated your sorry asses and if you cant show gratitude then shut the fuck up.
27 posted on 04/12/2003 6:11:05 PM PDT by UncleSamUSA (the land of the free and the home of the brave)
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To: Wilhelm Tell
This truly is tragic. A lot of what has been taken will never be seen again--lost to civilization forever. I'm sure most of the looters are ignorant people who will break up priceless artifacts and sell the pieces as junk metal. This is kind of the same mentality of the looters who took hospital equipment to sell as scrap. People stealing Saddam's golden doorknobs is one thing--I can laugh at that. Ancient artifacts are eveyone's heritage. We are all diminished by their loss.

Hardly. All that great stuff isn't worth the life on one soldier who might have died to protect it. Fini

28 posted on 04/12/2003 6:12:40 PM PDT by KingKongCobra
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To: Mister Magoo
How do we know when this stuff was looted if no one was allowed to see it ?
29 posted on 04/12/2003 6:30:46 PM PDT by VRWC_minion (Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and most are right)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Wilhelm Tell; JoeFromCA
This truly is tragic. A lot of what has been taken will never be seen again--lost to civilization forever. I'm sure most of the looters are ignorant people who will break up priceless artifacts and sell the pieces as junk metal. This is kind of the same mentality of the looters who took hospital equipment to sell as scrap. ... Ancient artifacts are eveyone's heritage. We are all diminished by their loss.

Totally agree. Unfortunately this same mentality seems to occur closer to home, maybe even right here on FR.

31 posted on 04/12/2003 6:45:07 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: Mister Magoo
Don't worry; it'll all end up on eBay eventually.
32 posted on 04/12/2003 7:04:40 PM PDT by Scothia (If you pray for rain, prepare to deal with some mud.)
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To: xymox
Thanks. Your's is the first post with first-hand information either here and or in the much longer earlier thread: Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum

The people running the show have done an amazing job overall, but this incident will probably never be forgotten.

33 posted on 04/12/2003 7:06:45 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: Mister Magoo
A full accounting of what has been lost may take weeks or months. The museum had been closed during much of the 1990's, and like many Iraqi institutions, its operations were cloaked in secrecy under Mr. Hussein.

So what officials told journalists today may have to be adjusted as a fuller picture comes to light. It remains unclear whether some of the museum's priceless gold, silver and copper antiquities, some of its ancient stone and ceramics, and perhaps some of its fabled bronzes and gold-overlaid ivory, had been locked away for safekeeping elsewhere before the looting, or seized for private display in one of Mr. Hussein's myriad palaces.

Or perhaps some valuables were looted (embezzled) long ago (10+ years) and what was once "out of sight, out of mind" was suddenly going to be open to public scrutiny.

34 posted on 04/12/2003 7:15:12 PM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: muawiyah
The problem that comes up is that the location and date of items is unknown even though they are known to be authentic.

There is a gold museum in Peru that contains looted treasures and it is of some historical value but not nearly as much as if they knew what regions different items came from.

I will say this. Ancient Jewish temples are being plowed under in the Middle East with no thought to historical preservation. Either cultural past has special regard or it doesn't, the journalists don't get to pick and choose.

35 posted on 04/12/2003 7:19:22 PM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: Russian Sage
You've got several on this thread (including me) who agree with you.
36 posted on 04/12/2003 7:22:15 PM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: Jeff Chandler
Is that one of Saddam's sons?
37 posted on 04/12/2003 7:22:48 PM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: wideminded
Don't know what he said but I did find this:

This account has been banned or suspended.
38 posted on 04/12/2003 7:25:52 PM PDT by weegee (CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: weegee
I thought he had a very interesting post as he was the only person with an opinion here who has actually been to the museum in question and seen the stolen items which he said were PRICELESS and IRREPLACABLE. He was somewhat critical of the Marines in his last line and this probably got him banned. As he had been a Marine officer himself perhaps he is entitled to more license than most.
39 posted on 04/12/2003 7:35:29 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: ambrose
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the valuables were probably stolen by the museum staff and directors, and they're using the looters to deflect blame

Yes, I smell a rat here. The article mentioned "vaults with huge steel doors". How did the looters get through those. And why has the museum been closed for years?

40 posted on 04/12/2003 8:06:44 PM PDT by knuthom
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