'Cradle Of Civilization' Treasures Lost + Did US Dealers/Collectors Organize Museum Looting?
Quintal
Excerpts:
"The Iraqi National Museum is the only museum in the world which shows
all the steps in the history of mankind,"
(...)
"These witnesses to our own development have gone, they are gone."
(...)
"This has been organized. It is not just theft, the aim is bigger than
this,"
(..)
"Other Iraqis share his sentiment. Tareq Abdulrazak, a 63-year-old
scientist, on Tuesday stood outside the charred and smoldering shell
of Iraq's national library, (...) Every book, every manuscript has
been destroyed."
(...)
"Here was Iraq's culture. Ancient and modern, all in writing," said
Abdulrazak. The Americans watched this happen. It is not enough to
destroy our buildings, our people? Now our history too?"
(...)
"Moayad Damerji of the Iraqi National Museum said the raid on the
building was planned in advance by people who knew exactly what they
were looking for among artifacts mainly unearthed during excavations
between the First and Second World Wars."
--------
Entire article :
'Cradle Of Civilization'
Treasures Lost
By Rosalind Russell
4-15-3
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's heritage has been stolen. Ancient and
priceless artifacts documenting the development of mankind are
missing, rare manuscripts set alight and artwork snatched.
Baghdad's museums, galleries and libraries are empty shells, looted
and torched almost overnight by gangs operating in the security vacuum
which accompanied last week's invasion of the city by U.S. forces and
the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Iraq sits on the land of ancient Mesopotamia, the "land between two
rivers," home to prehistoric man and the cradle of civilization. On
the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Mesopotamians were the
first people to study the stars, develop the written word and enforce
a legal code. Standing among shards of glass outside the Iraqi
National Museum, Dr. Moayad Damerji said the objects and artifacts
which bore witness to mankind's development had vanished, their loss
immeasurable.
"The Iraqi National Museum is the only museum in the world which shows
all the steps in the history of mankind," said the professor of
archaeology at Baghdad University, and the former director general of
the Iraqi Department of Antiquities.
"These witnesses to our own development have gone, they are gone."
Among the most priceless treasures missing are the Vase of Uruk and
the Harp of Ur, dating back to between 3,000 and 2,500 BC and the rule
of the Sumerian kings. The exquisite bronze Statue of Basitki from the
Akkadian kingdom is also gone, somehow hauled out of the museum
despite its huge weight.
"SAVAGE AND FURIOUS"
"They were savage and furious in their deeds," Damerji said of the
looters, who operated under the cover of fighting between U.S. troops
and Saddam Fedayeen militia in the western quarter of Baghdad where
the museum stands.
"They used iron bars and different kinds of tools to go through the
doors. They went through every single room, every place. They took
what they could and broke down the rest into pieces to show that they
were here."
The heads of stone statues have been decapitated, precious inscribed
tablets from the great Sumerian libraries lost. But the full extent of
the damage is still not known. With no electricity, museum workers are
keeping their movements inside the building to a minimum for fear of
disturbing what remains.
Nearby at the Saddam Arts Center there is a similar story of
destruction and despair. Picking through lumps of plaster, glass and
discarded picture frames scattered the floor, Iraqi artist Moayad
al-Haidari is searching for his paintings.
"My work was here. Before the war my work was here," he said, gazing
at the empty white walls of the exhibition space on the ground floor.
"We painted our dreams, our ideas, our future. It's a complete
disaster."
On the upper floors of the post-modern concrete gallery the permanent
exhibition of the works of the Iraqi Pioneers, a group of early
20th-century painters and sculptors who laid the foundation for the
modern Iraqi art movement have simply disappeared.
"This has been organized. It is not just theft, the aim is bigger than
this," said Haidari, dressed neatly and almost in tears. "This is to
undermine us, our heritage, our identity, our pride."
LIBRARY SMOULDERING
Other Iraqis share his sentiment. Tareq Abdulrazak, a 63-year-old
scientist, on Tuesday stood outside the charred and smoldering shell
of Iraq's national library, opposite the defense ministry in Baghdad.
Yellow catalog cards fluttered in the breeze on the library steps,
inside the air was still warm and the floor covered in flimsy black
pieces of charred paper. Every book, every manuscript has been
destroyed.
"Here was Iraq's culture. Ancient and modern, all in writing," said
Abdulrazak. The Americans watched this happen. It is not enough to
destroy our buildings, our people? Now our history too?"
The widespread looting that followed the capture of the Iraqi capital
has invoked fury among Baghdadis, who say U.S. forces did little to
protect their shops, businesses and public buildings after the
collapse of Iraqi authority.
Moayad Damerji of the Iraqi National Museum said the raid on the
building was planned in advance by people who knew exactly what they
were looking for among artifacts mainly unearthed during excavations
between the First and Second World Wars.
"This was a program, well organized. The Americans protected the
oilfields, but did nothing to protect our museum, but they are obliged
to protect these sites," he said.
INTERNATIONAL HELP
"Now everything is gone. Eighty years of work is gone. It is too
late."
In London on Tuesday, the British Museum announced it was sending nine
conservation experts to Iraq to help restore its cultural heritage.
Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell also stressed the importance
of preventing an illegal market developing in stolen goods and called
for a declaration that would see them returned to Iraq.
"We have to kill the market in stolen Iraqi treasures," Jowell said.
"We are determined to make sure that the U.K. is not a market for
stolen Iraqi imports."
UNESCO deputy director Mounir Bouchenaki said leading archeologists
will meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to rescue Iraq's cultural
heritage. They also plan a fact-finding mission to Iraq.
-------
http://rense.com/general37/dealers.htm
Rense.com
Did US Dealers/Collectors
Organize Museum Looting?
From Iraq War.ru Posted 4-7-3
By Liam McDougall - Sunday Herald
4-14-3
Fears that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of
the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers
secured a high-level meeting with the US administration.
It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts
lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy
(ACCP), met with US defence and state department officials prior to
the start of military action to offer its assistance in preserving the
country's invaluable archaeological collections.
The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who
favour a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and
export of antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has
described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist' and has said he would support
a post-war government that would make it easier to have antiquities
dispersed to the US.
Before the Gulf war, a main strand of the ACCP's campaigning has been
to persuade its government to revise the Cultural Property
Implementation Act in order to minimise efforts by foreign nations to
block the import into the US of objects, particularly antiques.
News of the group's meeting with the government has alarmed scientists
and archaeologists who fear the ACCP is working to a hidden agenda
that will see the US authorities ease restrictions on the movement of
Iraqi artefacts after a coalition victory in Iraq.
Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, leading Cambridge archaeologist
and director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research,
said: 'Iraqi antiquities legislation protects Iraq. The last thing one
needs is some group of dealer-connected Americans interfering. Any
change to those laws would be absolutely monstrous. '
A wave of protest has also come from the Archaeological Institute of
America (AIA), which says any weakening of Iraq's strict antiquities
laws would be 'disastrous'. President Patty Gerstenblith said: 'The
ACCP's agenda is to encourage the collecting of antiquities through
weakening the laws of archaeologically-rich nations and eliminate
national ownership of antiquities to allow for easier export. '
The ACCP has caused deep unease among archaeologists since its
creation in 2001. Among its main members are collectors and lawyers
with chequered histories in collecting valuable artefacts, including
alleged exhibitions of Nazi loot.
They denied accusations of attempting to change Iraq's treatment of
archaeological objects. Instead, they said at the January meeting they
offered 'post-war technical and financial assistance', and
'conservation support'.
-----
Billou
<grqq9vked2h3ml43l...@4ax.com> :
euh?? on est pas dans l'arborescence fr ici par hasard ?