IRAQ
MUSEUM
![](640px-Entrance_into_the_Iraq_Museum,_Baghdad,_Iraq._God_Nabu_stands_before_the_facade.jpg)
Entrance
of the Iraq Museum
Established
: 1926; 95 years ago
Location : Baghdad, Iraq
Collection size : 170,000 – 200,000
Visitors : Open
Director : Ahmed Kamil Muhammad
The
Iraq Museum is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad.
It is sometimes mistakenly called the National Museum of Iraq,
a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their
national museums; but The Iraq Museum's name is inspired by the
name of the British Museum. The Iraq Museum contains precious
relics from the Mesopotamian, Persian and Islamic civilization.
It was looted during and after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Despite
international efforts, only some of the stolen artifacts have
been returned. After being closed for many years while being refurbished,
and rarely open for public viewing, the museum was officially
reopened in February 2015.
Foundation
:
After World War I, archaeologists from Europe and the United States
began several excavations throughout Iraq. In an effort to keep
those findings from leaving Iraq, British traveller, intelligence
agent, archaeologist, and author Gertrude Bell began collecting
the artefacts in a government building in Baghdad in 1922. In
1926, the Iraqi government moved the collection to a new building
and established the Baghdad Antiquities Museum, with Bell as its
director. Bell died later that year; the new director was Sidney
Smith.
In
1966, the collection was moved again, to a two-story, 45,000-square-meter
(480,000-square-foot) building in Baghdad's Al-Salihiyyah neighborhood
in the Al-Karkh district on the east side of the Tigris River.
It is with this move that the name of the museum was changed to
the Iraq Museum. It was originally known as the Baghdad Archaeological
Museum.
Bahija
Khalil became the director of the Iraq Museum in 1983. She was
the first woman director and she held that role until 1989.
Collections
:
![](640px-Hrs_KAP_0054.jpg)
Exhibit
during renovations in 2007
Due to the archaeological riches of Mesopotamia, the museum's
collections are considered to be among the most important in the
world, and it has a fine record of scholarship and display. The
British connection with the museum — and with Iraq —
has resulted in exhibits always being displayed bilingually, in
both English and Arabic. It contains important artefacts from
the over 5,000-year-long history of Mesopotamia in 28 galleries
and vaults.
The
collections of The Iraq Museum include art and artefacts from
ancient Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations. The museum
also has galleries devoted to collections of both pre-Islamic
and Islamic Arabian art and artefacts. Of its many noteworthy
collections, the Nimrud gold collection—which features gold
jewellery and figures of the precious stone that date to the 9th-century
BCE—and the collection of stone carvings and cuneiform tablets
from Uruk are exceptional. The Uruk treasures date to between
3500 and 3000 BCE.
Damage
and losses during 2003 war :
The
Iraq Museum in Baghdad was looted in 2003 but has since reopened.
A statue of Nabu, the 8th century BC Assyrian god of wisdom, stands
before the building
In the months preceding the 2003 Iraq war, starting in December
and January, various antiquities experts, including representatives
from the American Council for Cultural Policy asked the Pentagon
and the UK government to ensure the museum's safety from both
combat and looting. But no promises were made, and fortunately,
the U.S. forces did not bomb the site, despite them bombing a
number of uninhabited Iraqi archaeological sites.
On
April 9, 2003, the last of the museum curators and staff left
the museum. Iraqi forces engaged U.S. forces a few blocks away,
as well as the nearby Special Republican Guard compound. Lt. Col.
Eric Schwartz of the U.S. third Infantry Division declared that
he "was unable to enter the compound and secure it since
they attempted to avoid returning fire at the building. Sniper
positions, discarded ammunition, and 15 Iraqi Army uniforms were
later discovered in the building". The positions turned out
to be museum arranged sandbags and protective foam support and
mitigation barriers for large size artefacts, the uniforms and
ammunition turning out to belong to the museum curators and staff
(being reserve military personnel in state of war) and to the
contrary to the U.S. statement, no traces of any serious engagement
were detected anywhere in the museum and its surrounding yard.
Iraqi staff as a protective measure had built a fortified wall
along the western side of the compound, allowing concealed movement
between the front and rear of the museum, and the U.S. forces
could have secured the museum by simply encircling and isolating
it preventing the looters from accessing the facility.
Thefts
took place between April 10 and 12, and when a number of museum
staff returned to the building on April 12, they fended off further
attempts by looters to enter the museum and had to wait till April
16 for the deployment of the U.S. forces around the museum. A
special team headed by Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos initiated
an investigation on April 21. His investigation indicated that
there were three separate thefts by three distinct groups over
the four days. While the staff instituted a storage plan to prevent
theft and damage (also used during the Iran–Iraq War and
the first Gulf War), many larger statues, steles, and friezes
had been left in the public galleries, protected with foam and
surrounded by sandbags. Forty pieces were stolen from these galleries,
mostly the more valuable ones. Of these only 13 had been recovered
as of January 2005, including the three most valuable: the Sacred
Vase of Warka (though broken in fourteen pieces, which was the
original state it was found in when first excavated), the Mask
of Warka, and the Bassetki Statue.
According
to museum officials, the looters concentrated on the heart of
the exhibition: "the Warka Vase, a Sumerian alabaster piece
more than 5,000 years old; a bronze Uruk statue from the Akkadian
period, also 5,000 years old, which weighs 660 pounds; and the
headless statue of Entemena. The Harp of Ur was torn apart by
looters who removed its gold inlay." Among the stolen artefacts
is the bronze Bassetki Statue, a life-size statue of a young man,
originally found in the village Basitke in the northern part of
Iraq, an Akkadian Empire piece that goes back to 2300 B.C. and
the stone statue of King Schalmanezer, from the eighth century
B.C.
In
addition, the museum's above-ground storage rooms were looted.
Approximately 3,100 excavation site pieces (jars, vessels, pottery
shards, etc.) were stolen, of which only 3,000 have been recovered.
The thefts did not appear to be discriminating; for example, an
entire shelf of fakes was stolen, while an adjacent shelf of much
greater value was undisturbed.
The
third occurrence of theft was in the underground storage rooms.
The thieves attempted to steal the most easily transportable objects,
which had been intentionally stored in the most remote location
possible. Of the four rooms, the only portion disturbed was a
single corner in the furthest room, where cabinets contained 100
small boxes containing cylinder seals, beads, and jewelry. Evidence
indicated that the thieves possessed special master keys to the
cabinets but dropped them in the dark. Instead, they stole 10,000
small objects that were lying in plastic boxes on the floor. Of
them, only 2,500 have approximately been recovered.
![](513px-Statue_of_Entemena,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
The
statue of Entemena, back in the museum
One of the most valuable artifacts looted was a headless stone
statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash. The Entemena statue,
"estimated to be 4,400 years old, is the first significant
artifact returned all the way from the United States and by far
the most important piece found outside Iraq. American officials
declined to discuss how they recovered the statue." The statue
of the king, located in the center of the museum's second-floor
Sumerian Hall, weighs hundreds of pounds, making it the heaviest
piece stolen from the museum – the looters "probably
rolled or slid it down marble stairs to remove it, smashing the
steps and damaging other artifacts."
The
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the recovery
of the statue of King Entemena of Lagash on July 25, 2006, in
the United States again. The statue was returned to the Iraq government.
It was discovered in the United States with the help of Hicham
Aboutaam, an art dealer in New York.
International
reaction to the looting :
The U.S. government was criticised for doing nothing to protect
the museum after occupying Baghdad. Dr Irving Finkel of the British
Museum said the looting was "entirely predictable and could
easily have been stopped." Martin E. Sullivan, chairman of
the U.S. President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property,
and U.S. State Department cultural advisers Gary Vikan and Richard
S. Lanier resigned in protest at the failure of US forces to prevent
the looting.
The
extent of the looting of The Iraq Museum has been disputed. Based
on a miscommunication by the first crews on the scene, and the
empty display cases in the main galleries that in most cases had
held objects which museum curators had removed before the First
Gulf War and invasion, news organizations for weeks reported that
as much as 170,000 catalogued lots (501,000 pieces) had been looted.
The accurate figure was around 15,000 items, including 5,000 extremely
valuable cylinder seals.
On
April 12, 2003, The Associated Press reported: "The famed
Iraq National Museum, home of extraordinary Babylonian, Sumerian
and Assyrian collections and rare Islamic texts, sat empty Saturday
– except for shattered glass display cases and cracked pottery
bowls that littered the floor."
On
April 14, National Public Radio's Robert Siegel announced on All
Things Considered: "As it turned out, American troops were
but a few hundred yards away as the country's heritage was stripped
bare."
Reacting
to the loss, French President Jacques Chirac on April 16, 2003,
declared the incident "a crime against humanity."[citation
needed]
When
asked why the U.S. military did not try to guard the museum in
the days after the invasion succeeded, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "If you remember, when
some of that looting was going on, people were being killed, people
were being wounded ... It's as much as anything else a matter
of priorities." Civil Affairs expert William Sumner, who
was tasked with handling arts, monuments and archives, explained
that the postwar Civil Affairs planners "didn't foresee the
marines as going out and assigning marine units as security ...
The issue of archaeological sites was considered a targeting problem,"
to be dealt with by those flying bombing missions. Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, speaking about the museum's looting,
said "stuff happens" and "to try to pass off the
fact of that unfortunate activity to a deficit in the war plan
strikes me as a stretch", and described the period of looting
in general as "untidiness". Secretary of State Colin
Powell said, "The United States understands its obligations
and will be taking a leading role with respect to antiquities
in general but this museum in particular.", but all such
promises were only partially honoured considering the staggering
increase in Iraqi archaeological site looting during the U.S.
occupation period of Iraq.
Two
weeks after the museum thefts, Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, General
Director Research Studies for the Board of Antiquities in Iraq,
stated of the looting, "It's the crime of the century because
it affects the heritage of all mankind". After the U.S. Marines
set up headquarters in Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, Dr Youkhanna
confirmed that he personally went there to plead for troops to
protect the Museum's onsite collection, but no guards were sent
for another three days.
Attempts
to recover lost items :
![](327px-Warka_vase_(background_retouched).jpg)
The
Warka Vase, back in the museum
A few days later, agents of the FBI were sent to Iraq to search
for stolen Museum property. UNESCO organized an emergency meeting
of antiquities experts on April 17, 2003 in Paris to deal with
the aftermath of the looting and its effects on the global art
and antiquities market.
On
April 18, 2003, the Baghdad Museum Project was formed in the United
States with a proposal to assure the Iraq Museum every possibility
of the eventual safe return of its collection, even if that is
to take hundreds of years. Rather than focus only on law enforcement
and the current antiquities market, the group set its mission
as being to (1) establish a comprehensive online catalog of all
cultural artifacts in the museum's collection, (2) create a virtual
Baghdad Museum that is accessible to the general public over the
Internet, (3) build a 3D collaborative workspace within the virtual
Baghdad Museum for design and fundraising purposes, and (4) establish
a resource center within the virtual Baghdad Museum for community
cultural development. Various ancient items believed looted from
the museum have surfaced in neighboring countries on their way
to the United States, Israel, Europe, Switzerland, and Japan,
and on even on eBay.
On
May 7, 2003, U.S. officials announced that nearly 40,000 manuscripts
and 700 artifacts belonging to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad were
recovered by U.S. Customs agents working with museum experts in
Iraq. Some looters had returned items after promises of rewards
and amnesty, and many items previously reported missing had actually
been hidden in secret storage vaults prior to the outbreak of
war. On June 7, 2003, the U.S. occupation authorities announced
that world-famous treasures of Nimrud were preserved in a secret
vault in the Iraqi Central Bank. The artifacts included necklaces,
plates, gold earrings, finger and toe rings, bowls and flasks.
But, around 15,000 and the tiny items including some of the most
valuable artifacts on the antiquities markets remain missing.
The
museum has been protected since its looting, but archaeological
sites in Iraq were left almost entirely unprotected by coalition
forces, and there has been massive looting, starting from the
early days of the warfare and between summer 2003 and the end
of 2007. Estimates are that 400–600,000 artifacts have been
plundered. Iraqi sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat spearheaded efforts
by the Iraqi artist community to recover artworks looted from
the museum. Approximately 150 of Hikmat's pieces were stolen from
the museum alone. Hikmat's group has only recovered approximately
100 of the museum's works, as of September 2011.
United
States Marine Colonel, and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney
Matthew Bogdanos led the search for these stolen artifacts for
over five years from 2003. Up to the year 2006 approximately 10,000
artifacts were recovered through his efforts. Antiquities recovered
include the Warka Vase and the Mask of Warka.
Recent
work :
At various Iraq reconstruction conferences, the Baghdad Museum
Project gave presentations to the reconstruction community advocating
the preservation of Iraq's cultural heritage in rebuilding projects.
On August 27, 2006, Iraq's museum director Dr. Donny Youkhanna
fled the country to Syria, as a result of murder threats he and
his family members had received from terrorist groups that were
assassinating all remaining Iraqi intellectuals and scientists.
Youkhanna held the position of visiting professor in the anthropology
department of Stony Brook State University of New York until his
death in March 2011.
On
June 9, 2009, the treasures of the Iraq Museum went online for
the first time as Italy inaugurated the Virtual Museum of Iraq.
On November 24, 2009, Google announced that it would create a
virtual copy of the museum's collections at its own expense, and
make images of four millennia of archaeological treasures available
online, free, by early 2010. It is unclear the extent by which
Google's effort overlaps with Italy's previous initiative. Google's
Street View service was used to image much of the museum's exhibit
areas and, as of November 2011, these images are online.
In
2017, forty ancient Iraqi artefacts drawn from the Iraq Museum
and spanning six millennia, from the Neolithic Age to the Parthian
Period, were shown alongside contemporary artworks at the Venice
Biennale. Most of these objects had never previously left Iraq,
excluding a few that were recently recovered after the 2003 lootings
of the Museum. Commissioned by Ruya Foundation, the exhibition
'Archaic' attracted over 5,500 visitors during the preview week
of the 57th Biennale, and was critically acclaimed by the press.
Reopening
:
The museum has opened its doors only partially since September
1980 during the Iran-Iraq War. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation
of Iraq, it has opened only rarely, opened on July 3, 2003 for
several hours for a visit by journalists and Coalition Provisional
Authority head J. Paul Bremer, as a signal that things were returning
to normal. In December 2008, the museum was opened for a photo
opportunity for Ahmad Chalabi, who returned a number of artifacts
supposedly handed in to him by Iraqis. The latest opening occurred
on February 23, 2009, at the behest of Iraqi prime minister Maliki,
to demonstrate that things were returning to normal. Many archaeological
officials protested against this opening, arguing that conditions
were not yet safe enough to put the museum at risk; the museum's
director was fired for airing her objections.
In
a ceremony to mark the occasion, Qahtan Abbas, Iraq's tourism
and antiquities minister, said that only 6,000 of the 15,000 items
looted from the museum in 2003 had been returned. And an estimated
600,000 archaeological pieces were looted by groups and militias
allied with the United States since 2003, according to a book
published in 2009. In September 2011 Iraqi officials announced
the renovated museum will permanently reopen in November, protected
by new climate control and security systems. The United States
and Italian governments have both contributed to the renovation
effort.
Official
reopening :
On February 28, 2015 the museum was officially reopened by Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The museum also has items taken
from the Mosul Museum, as ISIS has taken it over.[citation needed]
Recovery
:
On September 7, 2010, the Associated Press reported that 540 looted
treasures were returned to Iraq.
638
stolen artifacts were returned to the Iraq Museum after they were
located in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
On
January 30, 2012, a 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head
of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were
among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany. Up to 10,000 of the
Iraq Museum pieces are still missing, said Amira Eidan, general
director of the museum at the time of the recovery.
On
August 3, 2021, multiple global news sites reported that the US
has returned 17,000 looted ancient artifacts to Iraq.
Gallery
:
![](527px-Warka_Mask,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Mask
of Warka
![](513px-Warka_vase_(background_retouched).jpg)
Warka
Vase
![](400px-Sumerian_worshiper_from_Khafajah,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Sumerian
worshiper from Tell Asmar
![](575px-Sumerian_Statues_from_Eshnunna_and_Khafajah_of_Diyala_region,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Sumerian
Statues from Eshnunna and Khafajah of Diyala region, Iraq Museum
![](513px-Statue_of_Entemena,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Statue
of Entemena
![](640px-The_Great_Golden_Lyre_from_Ur,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
The
Great Golden Lyre from Ur
![](640px-Terracotta_lion_from_Tell_Harmal,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Terracotta
lion from Shaduppum (Tell Harmal)
![](640px-The_lady_at_the_window,_Nimrud_ivory,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
The
lady at the window, part of the Nimrud ivories
![](423px-Ivory_statuette_from_Nimrud,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Ivory
statuette, part of the Nimrud ivories
![](640px-The_Assyrian_gallery_at_the_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
The
Assyrian gallery at the Iraq Museum
![](640px-Throne_dais_of_Shalmaneser_III_from_Fort_Shalmaneser,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Throne
dais of Shalmaneser III from Fort Shalmaneser
![](640px-Statue_of_Sanatruq_I,_king_of_Hatra,_2nd_century_CE,_Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Statue
of Sanatruq, king of Hatra
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Museum