Experts say looters had keys to Iraqi antiquity vaults

[R. A. Hettinga]

Autovandalism: Wherein the Iraqui Ancien Regime "loots" itself...


It looks like the guys with the keys stole the stuff they already stole in the first place. 

The museum hasn't been open in 15 years, so who knows what was really there, and most of the stuff that wasn't copied elsewhere was copies anyway. Now, hopefully, the rest is on the open market, where it belongs.

At the very least, the stuff should have been auctioned off to pay the Iraqi debt, anyway.

Saying that that stuff was the patrimony of three different kinds of Arabs was like saying that Kennewick Man wasn't a Caucasian.

Cheers,
RAH
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<http://www.boston.com/news/daily/17/war_iraqmuseums.htm>

Boston Globe

Experts say looters had keys to Iraqi antiquity vaults 

By Associated Press, 4/17/03 


PARIS -- Some of the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities had keys to museum vaults and were able to take pieces from safes, experts said Thursday at an international meeting. 

The U.N. cultural agency, UNESCO, gathered some 30 art experts and cultural historians in Paris on Thursday to assess the damage to Iraqi museums and libraries looted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion. 

Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of the thieves clearly knew what they were looking for and where to find it, suggesting they were prepared professionals. 

"It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes." 

Cultural experts, curators and law enforcement officials are scrambling to track down the missing antiquities and prevent further looting of the valuables. 

The pillaging has ravaged the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia, and the losses have triggered an impassioned outcry in cultural circles. 

Many fear 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. 

Officials at the UNESCO meeting at its headquarters in Paris said the information was still too sketchy to determine exactly what was missing and how many items were unaccounted for. 

But they were united in calling for quick action to track down the pilfered items. 

"I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was," said Gibson. He added that if a good police team was put together, "I think it could be cracked in no time." 

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, began the meeting Thursday by calling for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities. 

Matsuura said it was urgent to repair the antiquities that remain and to keep them from the hands of those who traffic in the lucrative market of stolen objects. 

"It is always difficult, when communities are facing the consequences of an armed conflict ... to plead the case for the preservation of the cultural heritage," Matsuura said. 

Matsuura said he would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a resolution against illicit trafficking that would also impose an embargo "for a limited period" on the acquisition of Iraqi cultural objects. Such a resolution would also call for the return of such items to Iraq, he said. 

In addition, Matsuura said the establishment of a nationwide "heritage police" was necessary to watch over cultural sites and institutions. Such a force could be set up by "the authorities on the ground," an apparent reference to U.S. and British forces in Baghdad. 

He reiterated a call for governments to adopt emergency legal and administrative measures to prevent the importing of objects from Iraq, and to make sure museums and art dealers refuse transactions in such objects. 

A database of all cultural objects needs to be quickly established so police, museums, customs authorities can act against any traffickers, he said. 


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'