Experts Thieves Pillaged Iraqi Museums

Biloxi Sun Herald ^ | 4-17-03 | Jocelyn Gecker

[Unwavering Conservative]

Expert Thieves Pillaged Iraqi Museums

JOCELYN GECKER Associated Press

PARIS - Professional thieves, likely organized outside Iraq, pillaged the nation's priceless ancient history collections by using the cover of widespread looting - and vault keys - to make off with irreplaceable items, art experts and historians said Thursday.

The bandits were so efficient at emptying Iraqi libraries and museums that reports have already surfaced of artifacts appearing on the black market, some experts said. Certain thieves apparently knew exactly what they wanted from the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections, and exactly where to find them.

"It looks as if part of the theft was a very, very deliberate, planned action," said McGuire Gibson, president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "It really looks like a very professional job."

Gibson was among 30 art experts and cultural historians assembled by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to assess the damage to Iraq's heritage in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion.

In Washington, the FBI announced Thursday it had sent agents to Iraq to assist in recovering stolen antiquities.

"We are firmly committed to doing whatever we can to secure these treasures to the people of Iraq," FBI Director Robert Mueller told a news conference at the Justice Department.

But it remained unclear exactly what was gone and what survived the looting and thievery. With many museum records now in ashes and access to Iraq still cut off, it could take weeks or months to answer those questions.

Establishing a database was a key to finding out what had survived, and tracking down what was stolen, the experts said.

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said some of the greatest treasures - including gold jewelry of the Assyrian queens - were placed in the vaults of the national bank after the 1991 Gulf War. There was no information on whether those items remained inside.

The National Museum, one of the Middle East's most important archaeological repositories, was ransacked. But it was unknown whether one of its greatest treasures, tablets containing Hammurabi's Code, one of the earliest codes of law, were there when the looting began.

The pillaging has ravaged the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia - the home of modern-day Iraq. Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of it was highly organized.

"They were able to obtain keys from somewhere for the vaults and were able to take out the very important, the very best material," Gibson said. "I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was."

Many at the meeting feared the stolen artifacts have been absorbed into highly organized trafficking rings that ferry the goods through a series of middlemen to collectors in Europe, the United States and Japan.

The FBI was cooperating with the international law enforcement organization Interpol in issuing alerts to all member nations to try to track any sales of the artifacts "on both the open and black markets," Muller said.

Ahead of the war, Iraq's antiquities' authorities gathered artifacts from around the country and moved them to Baghdad's National Museum, assuming the museum would not be bombed, Gibson said.

"They did not count on the museum being looted," he said.

The network of antiquities dealing in Iraq is well-developed, escalating far beyond the ability of authorities to stop it following the 1991 Gulf War.

Thousands of antiquities had disappeared from the country even before the current war.

The trafficking feeds off of Iraq's poverty-stricken people, said Salma El Radi, an Iraqi archaeologist. "If you need to feed your family and the only way to do it is by looting a site, you're going to loot a site," El Radi said.

Much anger has been directed at U.S. troops, who stood by and watched as Iraq's treasures were carted off.

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of Paris-based UNESCO, called Thursday for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities. Such a resolution would also call for the return of such items to Iraq, he said.

"To preserve the Iraqi cultural heritage is, in a word, to enable Iraq to successfully make its transition to a new, free and prosperous society," the UNESCO chief said.

[Unwavering Conservative]

Now I am all fpor the war to remove Hussein from power in Iraq, but this looting thing is wrong.

[Unwavering Conservative]

I made an error. I said fpor. I meant for. I apologize for this error.

[Unwavering Conservative]

ping

[Only1choice____Freedom]

>>"Much anger has been directed at U.S. troops, who stood by and watched as Iraq's treasures were carted off."

Oh yea, they were watching as the theives carted them off.

NO, THEY WERE TAKING COVER FROM BULLETS.

These vaults appear to have been looted quite a while ago.
Even if they weren't, I'm sorry, the soldiers were busy staying alive and defending civilians.
The people with the keys are more to blame than the soldiers. How about we look at them first?

[HiTech RedNeck]

They did not count on the museum being looted," he said.

Anything with Saddam's ugly mug displayed on it, got looted.

[scooby321]

Inside Job they had Keys

[Unwavering Conservative]

I agree with you, but our nation's law enforcement agencies, as well other nations's law enforcement agencies, need to try and recover these valuable antiques.

[Unwavering Conservative]

I agree with you, but law enforcement needs to focus on apprehending the folks who recieved these stolen antiques.

[whadizit]

Udai reportedly had the museum looted before he left for parts unknown.

[Unwavering Conservative]

LOL

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, if you were the keeper of the keys and someone put a gun to your head, what would you do?

[Unwavering Conservative]

If you can, post a link or an excerpt from any news article you find that discusses that.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I bit a lot of it got spirited off to Syria.

[Jackson Brown]

Almost from day one, many people were saying that it was very likely that insiders were at least involved. However, this was reported very sporadically or not at all as the various newspapers and most TV news folks harped on where the US failed to protect this museum...carping at the US even while the fight was hot and heavy, even as they did with looting while the US soldier were still in the middle of a war.

There is NO report of the actual time when this stuff was actually taken. All people know is when the curator started screaming to the Bagdad press that it was looted.
.
As this story outlines mnay pieces went missing long before -- many more could have been gone days/weeks before the US got anywhere near the museum, where there were in any position to play museum guards while needing to fight for their own lives.

In addition, there are several people who know that museum very well who have said they have long suspected that many of the pieces were reproductions and the real stuff was long gone before the US was there.

Whose to say Saddam and his cronies didn't strong arm this curator and his staff -- that's doing all the screaming now -- and he's not just covering his butt or trying to get money on stuff THEY stole? I don't know and neither does any of those taking shots at the US. This stuff was supposedly worth billions. That makes it an "attractive" target for Iraqi insiders and/or "connected" people in Europe that wanted these pieces.

After all the hysteria and recriminations thrown at the US every day for a week, how many people NOW will see the info in THIS article (or the couple others in ths "AP series") reported on the 7 O'clock national network news???

Not a word yet, as far as I have seen...and I've been looking.

[Unwavering Conservative]

Or , perhaps Saudi Arabia.

The royal family in that country is spoiled rotten and rich.

They may have been behind this looting

[Porterville]

I think it is horrible that the museum was looted.

That said, it is pretty cool that their is a proffesional class of criminals (in the spirit of great novels) that would plan, during a war, to loot valuables from the vaults of a state....it is very exciting...

Yes I know what your going to say, " you are an idiot" or "you are the biggest jerk of the night" if that is what you think go hide under your bed and wet your panties...live a little and imagine being so devious.

[Unwavering Conservative]

ping

[Howlin]

If you can catch Nightline tonight, don't miss the WHINING by the guy who quit today as our "cultrual advisor." Note: he's a Clinton appointee. The whole show was packed with lies.

[Ethyl]

"They were able to obtain keys from somewhere for the vaults and were able to take out the very important, the very best material," Gibson said. "I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was."

Who had the keys???????????? The sadam regime stole the most important stuff and took it with them where ever they went. Also I heard on Fox that some scientists had studied the Museums in January and most all of the exibits were fakes. Besides, I heard on FOX that the curators of the museums were trained to make everything disappear within 24 hours, to be hidden in-case of war. And besides that, who knows when the museums were ransacked for the good stuff, it could have happened 3 weeks or so before we even hit Baghdad. These are bogus complaints by idiot journalists that have nothing more to report.