Donny George – the Iraqi Archaeologist who tried to protect Iraq National Museum in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein recently died aged 60.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Donny George
Donny George, who died on March 11 aged 60, was an Iraqi archaeologist who, following the 2003 invasion, fought a brave battle to prevent looters ransacking the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, then led efforts to recover thousands of stolen artefacts.
6:35PM GMT 15 Mar 2011

Ancient Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq — was the cradle of urban civilisation, and Iraq’s National Museum is the main repository of its archaeological treasures, resonant with such names as Babylon, Nimrud, Asher, Uruk, Nineveh and Ur.

When the Allies invaded Iraq, George, an Assyrian Christian, was director of research at the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. In the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, he fought his way through the chaos to report to the museum, but found that he could not persuade American troops to protect it by moving their tanks across the entrance because they had not been ordered to do so. It was a question about the looting that prompted American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s laconic observation “Stuff happens”. Or as General Tommy Franks of Central Command said at a pre-war briefing when the subject of securing cultural sites came up, “I don’t have time for this —-ing bullshit!”
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This article argues something that I have often tried to explain – that without their context, artworks lose their meaning. Nowhere is this more the case, than with the Parthenon Sculptures. These works were always designed to be seen on the Acropolis – they formed an integral part of the building & were specifically designed to tell a story as a visitor moved past the building.

From:
Los Angeles Times

Critic’s Notebook: Remove art from its architectural context, and what’s left?
The cases of a reputed Banksy piece in Detroit and Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh, India, raise complicated questions.
March 12, 2011|By Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic

When we debate the endlessly tricky subjects of cultural patrimony and looted art, the pieces that usually come to mind are marble statues from classical antiquity or paintings stolen and stashed away during wartime. Not street art. And certainly not manhole covers.

But thanks to Banksy, the elusive London-based artist, as well as fresh questions about the fate of Chandigarh, the Indian city designed in the 1950s by Modernist architect Le Corbusier, preparatory notes for a new chapter in this long story have shown up in the press in recent days.
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British Museum director Neil MacGregor talks in Grand terms about an exhibition of rescued artefacts from Afghanistan, describing their existence as part of the overall story. Why is it then, that so little is made of the stories behind the acquisition of so many artefacts in the museum’s collection, focussing instead only on how the objects were created in the first place.

From:
Edmonton Sun

Karzai opens London show of rescued Afghan treasures
By Stefano Ambrogi, Reuters
Last Updated: March 6, 2011 10:00pm

Even in the chaos and violence of war there is hope. That is the message running through a new British Museum exhibition of Afghanistan’s ancient treasures thought lost, destroyed, or looted over the past 30 years.

The collection of 200 priceless artefacts spanning 4,000 years of history, from enameled Roman glass goblets, stunning solid gold headdresses and polished stone tableware from Egypt, were saved by a handful of Afghan officials who risked their lives hiding them.
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More coverage of the metopes from the Parthenon that have been discovered buried within the walls of the Acropolis.

From:
Agence France Presse

Long-lost marble fragments found in Acropolis walls
(AFP) – Mar 3, 2011

ATHENS — Archaeologists in Greece have located long-lost fragments from the 2,500-year-old Parthenon built into the outer walls of the Athens Acropolis, a supervising official said on Thursday.

The fragments were pinpointed after a vertical scan of the 20-metre (65-foot) walls using a camera mounted on a modified weather balloon, says Mary Ioannidou, head of the Acropolis Restoration Service.
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Five missing metopes from the Parthenon have been rediscovered, buried in the walls of the Acropolis when they were repaired in the past.

From:
Greek Reporter

Archaeologists Discover New Metopes of Parthenon
Posted on 04 March 2011 by Anastasia Brousou

Five metopes of the Parthenon have been discovered in the South wall of Acropolis. According to “Eleftherotypia” daily, the archaeologists claim that the metopes have been placed in the 18th century, when the Acropolis wall was being repaired. The experts discovered the metopes, while processing 2250 photos with modern photographic methods.

The metopes found, are different from the other panels, as they are made of marble from the area of Penteli. Until recently the archaeologists used to believe that those metopes had been destroyed during the Morosini explosion of the Parthenon, in 1678.

Janet Munsil’s play about the Elgin Marbles is showing again in Canada.

From:
Times Colonist (Canada)

Theatre Review: Stolen Greek sculptures inspire play
By Adrian Chamberlain, Times Colonist March 6, 2011
What: Influence
Where: Metro Studio
When: To March 13
Rating: 3 1/2

No wonder Athena seems choked.

The citizens of Athens built the Parthenon in the goddess’s honour. So when Lord Elgin pilfered the sculptures from the Parthenon in the early 19th century, she took it as a personal affront.

An enraged Athena storms the stage in Influence, a 2008 play by Victoria’s Janet Munsil, now undergoing its second production. Set in the British Museum in 1817, where the marbles are newly installed, she is joined by fellow Greek gods Apollo and Hephaestus. The mortals are the poet John Keats and the English painter Benjamin Haydon, a lesser-known figure.
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