When it first occurred, the looting of Iraq was one of the most publicly visible destructions of a nature’s culture that had been seen, with much of the ransacking shown on live TV feeds, while troops on the ground struggled to assess the situation. It has to an extent though helped people to understand the kind of situations in which many other artefacts in museums, such as the Benin Bronzes were acquired – a knowledge that we aren’t always talking about smugglers taking an artefact, but in many cases about violent acts of vandalism taking place at the same time.

Since the dark days of 2003, much has been done to help retrieve some of the items lost during the looting, although few would dispute that the best course of events would have been for the looting to have been prevented in the first place.

A new database now aims to catalogue much of Iraq’s ancient sites, with the intention that this will allow better monitoring & protection of them.

From:
CNN

Iraq harnesses technology to protect ancient treasures
By Laura Allsop for CNN
July 21, 2011 — Updated 1517 GMT (2317 HKT)

(CNN) — Known to many as the “cradle of civilization,” Iraq is a treasure trove of important archaeological sites including Babylon, Ur and Nimrud.

Yet hostile circumstances on the ground have left the country’s antique heritage vulnerable to looting and damage.
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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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Looting of artefacts, particularly during invasions & times of occupation, is something that has gone on for thousands of years. More recently though, some cases have gained a much higher profile & in some instances, this has led to the disputed artefacts being voluntarily returned.

From:
The National (UAE)

Homelands seek to reclaim art gone astray
Anna Blundy
Last Updated: Feb 1, 2011

According to the Book of Chronicles in the Bible’s Old Testament, “King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.”

Seizing the artworks of a country or a people has always been used as a politically motivated cultural rape in times of conflict. Thus, artworks of disputed ownership have always been in the news. Just last week Germany again rejected Egypt’s demand to return its 3,350-year-old bust of Nefertiti, and there have been battles over ancient Etruscan artwork and Aztec artefacts, not to mention the Elgin Marbles, a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions and architectural artefacts that were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. They were brought to Britain by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s, remain in the British Museum and look likely to stay there.
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A documentary film is being produced, looking at the looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites after the country’s dictator was overthrown in 2003.

You can watch a trailer for the film here. log in as: Nasiriyah with the password: Journey Note that these are both case sensitive.

From:
Four Corners Media

The Road to Nasiriyah
The Great Holiday Appeal

After four years of hard work on our documentary film from Iraq, The Road to Nasiriyah, we are nearing the end of the journey. We are happy to share with you that we are now at a one hour and forty eight minute rough cut, and plan to finish the film this spring.

To help us reach that goal, we are raising finishing funds in an end-of-year holiday appeal. We appreciate all of your support and encouragement that helped us get to this point.
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David Hall, the Assistant US Attorney for the District of Delaware, has been awarded a Beacon Award by SAFE for his efforts to prosecute art crimes.

From:
WGMD

Oct 25, 2010 posted by: Mari Lou-WGMD News
District of DE Asst US Attorney awarded for prosecuting art crimes

Two separate investigations ended in the seizure of a fraudulent Andrew Wyeth painting that was to be auctioned and the seizure of Mesopotamian antiquities that were at some time smuggled into the US unlawfully from Iraq. As a result Assistant US Attorney for the District of Delaware, David Hall is being honored with one of 4 2010 SAFE – Saving Antiquities for Everyone – Beacon Awards, for his work as the special prosecutor of the FBI’s Art Crime Team.
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Egypt is holding a conference on stolen & looted antiquities, bringing together representatives from many of the nations that are requesting returns. Hopefully, many other countries can learn from some of Egypt’s recent successes in this field.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 01:23 GMT, Wednesday, 7 April 2010 02:23 UK
Egypt hosts meeting on recovery of ‘stolen treasures’

Global culture officials are to meet to discuss how to recover ancient treasures which they say have been stolen and displayed overseas.

Sixteen countries will be represented at the two-day conference in Cairo.
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The Parthenon Sculptures are just a small proportion of the many other cases of disputed artefacts around the world. The countries that currently posses them rarely admit that these pieces are anyting other than legitimately acquired & owned.

From:
Pravda

Heritage, Loot or Booty?
07.02.2010

Western Museums are brimming with cultural heritage…from other countries. The Elgin Marbles are just one set of tens of thousands of artefacts looted from distant lands during colonial or imperialist times. However, the same desecration of cultural heritage continues. How many of the 13,000 artefacts stolen from Baghdad National Museum are today in the United States of America?

The list was drawn up and given to Vice-President Richard (Dick) Cheney before the first US or British soldier set foot in Iraq. It was a shopping list of archaeological treasures which the White House cronies wanted to see on their shelves in Rhode Island, in Maryland, in Virginia. UNESCO claims that when the Baghdad National Museum was looted in April 2003, 13,000 objects disappeared. How many of these are sitting in private homes in the USA?
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Looting of artefacts is not a recent phenomenon – but despite every more stringent international laws, it continues to be a problem – leading to potential new disputes between countries in the future that no one yet knows about.

From:
PR Newswire

Looting Matters: Why Do Antiquities From Iraq Continue to Surface on the Market?
SWANSEA, Wales, July 17 /PRNewswire/

David Gill, archaeologist, considers how antiquities derived from Iraq continue to appear on the antiquities market.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the loss of some 15,000 items from the archaeological collections in Baghdad. This alerted the international community to the scale of the problem and as a result some 6000 objects have been handed over to Iraqi authorities. These have been seized in a range of countries across the Middle East as well as in Europe.
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The Netherlands are to return various artefacts to Iraq. The artefacts were surrendered by dealers after they were informed by the police that the pieces were looted.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 21:54 GMT, Thursday, 9 July 2009 22:54 UK
Dutch hand back looted Iraqi art

The Netherlands has returned to Iraqi ownership dozens of ancient artefacts that were stolen from the country after the US-led invasion of 2003.

The 69 items were surrendered by Dutch art dealers after Interpol disclosed their illegal origin.
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The looting of the Iraq Museum was anticipated by many – yet the people who were in charge of the country seemed wholly unprepared for dealing with the situation.

From:
The National (Abu Dhabi)

Were there that many vases?
Last Updated: June 04. 2009 11:37AM UAE / June 4. 2009 7:37AM GMT

The remarkable fact about the looting of the Iraq Museum, Hugh Eakin writes, is not how little it was anticipated – but how much it was forewarned.

The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum
Lawrence Rothfield
University of Chicago Press
Dh105

In February, 2003, about a month before the invasion of Iraq, a former American diplomat quietly flew to Baghdad to meet with Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s deputy prime minister. A Middle East hand who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, William R Polk was on an improbable mission: he was hoping to persuade the Baathist regime to remove the unparalleled collections of Baghdad’s Iraq Museum to Jordan for safekeeping. This was no mere whim. The heads of the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Oriental Institute of Chicago and the American Museum of Natural History in New York were to co-sponsor the project; the Jordanians told Polk they were prepared to give the green light, pending Baghdad’s consent. The well-connected Polk had even secured private funding to cover the cost of packing and shipping the collection to Amman. With a US invasion now almost certain, however, the Iraqis had other things to worry about. The plan went nowhere.
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Different countries have in recent years used a wide range of techniques to try & secure the return of disputed artefacts. Some of these approaches have had more success than others.

From:
South China Morning Post

Countries go to greater lengths to get looted treasures back
5 Mar 2009
South China Morning Post

China is not the only nation that wants missing relics back and many countries employ different means to retrieve them, write Tim Johnson and Julie Sell

Cambodia, are barely able to halt the plunder of sites like the ancient Angkor temples complex.
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More coverage of the peculiar ending to the current chapter of the row over the disputed Chinese artefacts auctioned from the collection of Yves Saint Lauren. Whether his actions were right or wrong, they have had great success in highlighting the problems that arise when items such as this are sold whilst their ownership is disputed.

From:
The Globe & Mail (Canada)

Bidder butts heads with Christie’s over looted art
MARK MACKINNON
Sources: BBC, CNN, Washington Times, McClatchy
March 3, 2009

BEIJING — For 150 years, the bronze heads of the rabbit and rat have passed from one rich Western owner to the next, symbols of what many Chinese consider a time of national humiliation.

Where they end up next remains in doubt after a Chinese collector says he won a controversial auction for the two 18th-century artworks last week in Paris, but refuses to pay the price, which is over $50-million.
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