Iraqi Artifacts, Manuscripts Recovered

The Washington Post ^ | 5/8/2003 | Guy Gugliotta

[Utah Girl]

Reward Offer Nets Thousands of Items Missing From National Museum

U.S. Customs agents announced yesterday that investigators, working with military officials and Iraqi authorities, have recovered about 700 artifacts and 39,400 manuscripts that disappeared from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad during chaos and looting that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

... The agency, which is working from an inventory of losses from thefts last month, said that some high-value items apparently were stolen from vaults where museum staff had stored them for safekeeping. So far, Iraqi authorities have identified 38 missing items classified as high value, Boyd said. The museum, in central Baghdad, was believed to have held more than 170,000 items spanning 5,500 years of Mesopotamian civilization.

...A statement from Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its agents and U.S. forces opened an investigation at the National Museum when they heard news of the looting. Boyd said investigators started receiving missing artifacts after they launched a public campaign promising rewards and amnesty for returns.

Reports of thefts before the looting started and the small number of documented losses have muted some of the public outcry against U.S. forces, who were criticized for standing idle while mobs invaded the museum. Boyd said, however, that "we believe that there is more out there," and noted that the museum did not have a computerized inventory.

[Utah Girl]

The military deserves a full apology from the press who blew this WAY out of proportion. Won't see it though.

[Chirodoc]

So true. Initial coverage of this was apocalyptic. I'm sick and tired of the media blowing up isolated adversarial encounters and problems while ignoring the postive things and interactions going on over there.

[VOA]

Please see: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/905906/posts

I saw the Chicago Tribune/Philadelpia Inquirer article posted here Monday morning.
NOT A PEEP on talk radio or TV news as far as I could tell...until talk show
host Hugh Hewitt said he was starting to hear rumors that the trashing/theft
of the Baghdad museum had been greatly exagerated.
(that was on Wednesday afternoon)

If it turns out that the world press got it all wrong, don't expect this story to
get trumpted.
It's like every innocent victim of slander/libel finds out...the retractions
are always an order of magnitude quieter than the lies.

[Utah Girl]

Thanks for the link. I read a story before the war got started that the staff at the museum was taking precautions to make sure nothing happened to the antiquities. I can tell you I was yelling at the TV big time when that whiny director led the press all over the place, complaining about looting. And you're right, an apology won't be forthcoming, and if it is, it will be hidden next to the want ads. Heaven forbid they should let anything positive be said about the military or President Bush. And I wonder if the arts director who resigned over this whole thing is feeling stupid now (I can't remember the position he held, some cultural guy who made a big stink and resigned over the looting.)

[Mike Darancette]

Iraqi Artifacts

I would bet that not one of the artifacts is "Iraqi" in origin. The only art produced by Iraq was paintings of Saddam on velvet and bawdy house style palaces.

Iraq is a country that has produced nothing but misery and death.

[LPStar]

That depends how you define "Iraqi". After all, by many good definitions, Abraham was "Iraqi", since he was from Ur!