MOSUL
MUSEUM
![](512px-Views_around_the_Mosul_Museum_in_the_old_city_of_Mosul_in_2019_during_the_summer,_following_war_with_the_Islamic_State_01.jpg)
Mosul
Museum
Former
name :
Mosul Museum of History
Established : 1952
Location : Mosul, Iraq
Coordinates : 36.337923° N 43.139372° E
Type : National History Museum
Collection size : approx. 2,200 pieces
Director : Zaid Ghazi Saadallah
Owner : Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
The
Mosul Museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National
Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003
Iraq War. Founded in 1952, the museum consisted of a small hall
until a new building was opened in 1972, containing ancient Assyrian
artifacts. The museums net worth and content value are around
50 to 80 to 250 million [clarification needed] according to museum
specialists during 2013 at least. Dr. Hikmat Al-Aswad was the
Director from 2004-2011. The current director is Zaid Ghazi Saadallah.
ISIL
seizure and destruction spree :
In 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) occupied
the Museum as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding.
ISIL said that its statues were against Islam and threatened to
destroy the museum's contents.
On
26 February 2015, a day after burning books from Mosul libraries,
the group released a video showing the destruction of artifacts
in the museum and at the archaeological site at Nimrud, claiming
the sites promoted "Idolatry". [citation needed] ISIL
stated that they also intend to destroy the historic walls of
Nineveh.
There
has been quite some confusion whether artefacts destroyed by ISIL
militants were originals or just copies. Mossul's exiled governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi said that many of the most important works,
except for the larger objects, were transferred to the Baghdad
Museum after the 2003 Iraq War, the most valuable ones having
been sent to Baghdad already after the 1991 Gulf War. Later in
March, the director of Iraq's antiquities administration, Fawzye
al-Mahdi, however, incorrectly stated that "none of the artifacts
destroyed in the video was an original." As al-Nujaifi specified,
"there were two items that were real and which the militants
destroyed: one is a winged bull and the other was the God of Rozhan."
It
was revealed that ISIS has turned the artifact warehouse into
a tax office – the "Diwan Zakat" – to collect
dues from its Islamist fighters.
In
2017 the city of Mosul was recaptured by the Iraqi troops; the
museum was described as damaged, with some artifacts likely plundered
and sold off by ISIS troops, and others damaged or destroyed,
sometimes intentionally.
Reactions
:
In late February, UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova requested
an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council "on the
protection of Iraq's cultural heritage as an integral element
for the country's security".
Post-liberation
recovery :
In 2018, the International alliance for the protection of heritage
in conflict areas (ALIPH), committed nearly 1.5 million USD to
rehabilitate the museum, in partnership with the Louvre Museum,
the Smithsonian Institution, and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities
and Heritage to implement the project. The first measures were
to stabilize the building (shoring up collapsing floors, removing
live ordnance from the roof) and to safely store the museum's
collection.
In
cooperation with the Government of Iraq and Municipality of Mosul,
Iraqi civil society organisation, Al-Ghad, and the Mosul Artists’
Committee hosted the first event in Mosul Museum since the City's
occupation in 2014. The art exhibition, ‘Return to Mosul’
opened on 29 January and closed on 3 February 2019, and brought
together artistic voices from across Iraq and Mosul and enhanced
them with technology including 3D printing and Virtual Reality
experiences. It commissioned and exhibited paintings, photographs
and sculpture that told the story of the City's occupation under
the extremist organisation, ISIS, and articulated a vision of
the local community's hopes for recovery and reconstruction. The
exhibition brought together many different ethno-sectarian groups,
previously fractured by the divisive actions and narratives of
ISIS, and encouraged them to discuss their vision of a brighter,
more tolerant future in Mosul. The exhibition was staged in the
newly restored Royal Venue, in the old wing of the Museum.
Reopening
:
On July 10, 2020 Iraq’s newly-appointed prime minister,
Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, reopened the Mosul Museum during his visit
to mark six years since the ISIL occupation.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul_Museum