Most Iraqi Treasures Are Said to Be Kept Safe

The New York Times ^ | 5/6/2003 | BARRY MEIER

[Utah Girl]

top British Museum official said yesterday that his Iraqi counterparts told him they had largely emptied display cases at the National Museum in Baghdad months before the start of the Iraq war, storing many of the museum's most precious artifacts in secure "repositories."

The official, John E. Curtis, curator of the Near East Collection at the British Museum, who recently visited Iraq, said Baghdad museum officials had taken the action on the orders of Iraqi government authorities. When looting started, most of the treasures apparently remaining in display halls were those too large or bulky to have been moved for protection, Mr. Curtis said.

He and Neil MacGregor, the British Museum's director, were in New York for the opening of an exhibition, "Art of the First Cities," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In a news conference at the museum and a subsequent interview, Mr. Curtis said he believed that American authorities now knew the locations of the artifact repositories but that as a precaution against further looting were not disclosing them.

In Iraq yesterday, American and Iraqi officials appeared to support this assessment, saying they still did not know precisely what was missing from the National Museum, because they had not yet had access to sites where art objects may have been hidden, or to rooms inside the building that were among the looters' targets.

But Mr. Curtis said the officials "certainly know" where the hiding places are.

Both he and Mr. MacGregor said a full accounting of missing artifacts would have to await the opening of the repositories.

It was previously known that Iraqi officials placed some artifacts in the vault of the country's Central Bank for safekeeping in the event of war. But Mr. Curtis's comments indicated that safekeeping measures may have been far more extensive.

Such measures would mirror actions taken in Iraq before the Persian Gulf war in 1991, primarily as a protection against bombing of Baghdad.

Mr. Curtis's remarks may help explain recent reports by both Iraqi officials and American authorities that losses at the National Museum are less extensive than previously feared. For instance, Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting, said recently that Baghdad museum officials had listed only 25 artifacts as definitely missing.

Mr. Curtis said it appeared that a vast majority of the looting at the National Museum had not taken place in its display halls but in its basement storage rooms, where more commonplace objects were kept.

Some 100,000 to 200,000 objects were stored in the basements, British Museum officials said. Many of them may never have been photographed or cataloged.

As a result, Mr. MacGregor said, they are precisely the types of objects that can easily slip into the black market for looted artifacts.

"Even if they have a little museum marking on the back of them," he said, "that can be easily removed."

The protracted debate in Washington over a United Nations resolution to lift sanctions against Iraq has included discussion of a measure to urge all nations to work toward the return of the stolen antiquities, American officials said today.

But it is still not clear whether the United States will seek a separate Security Council resolution on the issue, or include it in a larger one dealing with the sanctions. It also remains unclear whether it will include anything stronger than a plea for cooperation.

<img src='http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/05/06/international/06muse.jpg"><BR> Mesopotamian votive statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "Art of the First Cities."

[Utah Girl]

Well, well, well, what do you know. Looks like the blame America first people blew it yet again. The Marines and the FBI are now looking into the "missing" antiquities, and only 25 are missing? Lots and lots of people need to apologize.

[Utah Girl]

Ping

[Utah Girl]

Oops, here is the graphic that I didn't link correctly.

Mesopotamian votive statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "Art of the First Cities."

[Free ThinkerNY]

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Blame America Left to apologize. That's against their religion. Anti-Americanism.

[prairiebreeze]

Wonder why that Iraqi museum rep was bawling like a baby with the press when the story of the "horrible extensive looting" broke. Think some reporter slipped him a few bucks to cut tears for the camera and inflate the story?

Prairie

[Utah Girl]

Oh, I'm not holding my breath for an apology. It would be nice for Christianne Amanpour to make amends, she was wringing her hands all over CNN when the looting of this museum was announced. And the same thing for PResident Bush's art director (or whatever he is called). The guy who resigned because the military couldn't be bothered to safeguard a museum of priceless antiquities from the beginning of time. I wonder how stupid he feels right now, or did he resign just to momentarily smear the US?

[Fifth Business]

In Iraq yesterday, American and Iraqi officials appeared to support this assessment, saying they still did not know precisely what was missing from the National Museum, because they had not yet had access to sites where art objects may have been hidden, or to rooms inside the building that were among the looters' targets.

.... Both he and Mr. MacGregor said a full accounting of missing artifacts would have to await the opening of the repositories.

.... Mr. Curtis said it appeared that a vast majority of the looting at the National Museum had not taken place in its display halls but in its basement storage rooms, where more commonplace objects were kept.

Some 100,000 to 200,000 objects were stored in the basements, British Museum officials said. Many of them may never have been photographed or cataloged.

Sounds like the losses haven't been fully accounted for yet. It might be premature to crow about how little was looted. Yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer claimed that 90 boxes containing about 5,000 items were stolen from a storage area:

Investigators found that the basement storage area, which held thousands of small items not deemed suitable for display, had been disturbed in one of the four rooms. They broke through a cinder-block barrier to the room to find hundreds of cardboard boxes intact and about 90 plastic boxes, containing about 5,000 less-valuable items, missing.

[MEG33]

I believe he went to the same school of honest reporting that Baghdad Bob did.

[McGavin999]

I heard that the museum official was one of the ones who is being looked at for "removing the objects for safety". It seems that he can't exactly recall what was there before.

[Utah Girl]

OK, but the museum can't even put together a list yet of what was in their inventory. Until that happens, numbers don't really mean anything.

[Grampa Dave]

A fired liar who was a lying reporter for the NY Slimes has just written a book about his lying. The book is a fictional book of course.

Here is the link to this incredible liar, er author's latest fiction posing as a book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/07/books/07GLAS.html?ei=5062&en=8b2926cbe71f4cb5&ex=1052884800&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

May 7, 2003
A History of Lying Recounted as Fiction
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK


tephen Glass, who was fired by The New Republic five years ago for fabricating details in 27 articles, has written a book telling his side of the story in fictional form.

His publisher, Simon & Schuster, has kept the project a closely guarded secret. The company sold the book to stores without revealing its title or its author. Instead Simon & Schuster sent a letter to bookstores describing the novel as "a rollicking, riveting tour de force that does for the media business what `Primary Colors' did for politics," a reference to the best-selling roman à clef about President Bill Clinton whose author later was revealed to be Joe Klein.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this. This liar, er NY Slimes reporter is still cozy with the reality that there was no real theft. If there was, it was with the gate keepers of the museum.

[Grampa Dave]

For your information.

The liars at the NY Slimes are close to admitting that nothing of importance happened here re thefts. If there was any major thefts, the perps are probably the museum's management, the supposed gate keepers.

Please ping your friends and use as a 2X4 on the liars of Free Republic, pretending to be concerned conservatives about the massive theft at the museum.

[sistergoldenhair]

Think some reporter slipped him a few bucks to cut tears for the camera and inflate the story?

Probably didn't take money. I'm beginning to think whining is their main form of communication.

British Museum official said yesterday that his Iraqi counterparts told him they had largely emptied display cases at the National Museum in Baghdad months before the start of the Iraq war

So, did he know this and not say anything?

[Free ThinkerNY]

Amanpour should apologize for existing. None of the knee-jerk reactionary Anti-Americans will ever admit to being wrong about anything. When proven wrong they simply cover their crap like the running-dogs they are. Arrogance is their lifes blood. Remember, truth to a Liberal is like a crucifix to a vampire.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I want some answers form that "Donny George" guy, the curator of the museum, who went around blabbing to the press about how all these priceless treasures had been looted and the U.S. military should have been protecting them. "Donny George" is obviously not Iraqi born, and if he was the curator (or director, or whatever all the articles said he was), you'd think he'd have known something about how all this stuff was removed to safety weeks earlier.