[CPProt.net] The director of the British Museum reflects on the looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, and what now needs to be done

[MSN CPPnet]

The UK government must act now
The director of the British Museum reflects on the looting of the Iraq
Museum, Baghdad, and what now needs to be done

By Neil MacGregor
Director, The British Museum  

Another day, another report of death in Iraq. Or probably, several. As I
write this review, the German press has announced that Fuad Ibrahim
Mohammed, head of Baghdad University's Institute of German Studies, who for
the last two years has been working to re-build its library, destroyed by
artillery when American troops entered Baghdad, has been murdered by unknown
killers on his way to work. It happens all the time. It is hardly even news.
The human cost of rebuilding Iraq's cultural patrimony is, and will be,
immense and is shamefully under-reported in the outside world. This is the
context in which readers of The Art Newspaper must address The looting of
the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, which tells once again the familiar events and
gives some idea of what will one day need to be done as a consequence.

As the museum itself is still closed, this book takes us on an imaginary
stroll through its rooms and through Mesopotamian history. Our guides are a
team of distinguished scholars-Iraqi, Italian, American and British, most of
whom have worked for decades in Iraq. Using works from the museum's
collections, they lead us from the Stone Age to Alexander the Great, pausing
every now and then to look in detail at an outstandingly beautiful object.
It is a serious general guide to the museum we cannot visit. At intervals,
to vary the pace, an excursion-with superb photographs-is made to the great
sites, archaeological, Islamic, Ottoman, led this time by those who have dug
and studied there and can tell us why the places matter. 

But the purpose of this beautiful book of easy scholarship is, of course,
not pleasure, but a call to action, and its scope is far wider than its
title suggests. 

 The story of the looting of the museum is by now well known. There can be
no questioning the loss of thousands of objects from its collections,
especially cylinder seals, and there is little more now to say. The damage
wilfully inflicted on the historic site of Babylon by American and Polish
troops who chose to use it as a transport hub has been widely publicised and
internationally condemned. 

But the aerial photographs showing the continuing organised looting of many
other archaeological sites will shock most readers, as will the account of
the systematic failure of the coalition forces to protect them, in spite of
the unequivocal obligation that international law imposes on occupying
powers.

It is hard to see how the current Iraqi government can soon succeed where
the coalition with its huge international resources so signally failed, and
site-looting is now a staple of the local economy in many areas. On any
realistic view, this destruction of knowledge will continue for years to
come. It is unlikely we shall ever be able to measure our loss. A portion of
the royalties from this book will go to the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities
and Heritage. But every reader of The Art Newspaper is bound to ask what
they, as individuals, or working with institutions, can do.

For the situation is far worse than even this book suggests. Focussing on
the Iraq Museum and the great sites, it does not address the loss of
libraries, the destruction of most of the archives of Ottoman Iraq, or the
damage inflicted on towns and cities which are still inhabited.

Since the change of regime in Baghdad, the Iraq Museum has been opened for
only one half day: for a press conference to show that the gold of Nimrud
prudently stored in the vaults of the Central Bank by the staff, was indeed
still safe. It was, but the ivories from Nimrud had suffered serious damage
because their store had flooded and they still await conservation. As
electricity is intermittent and unpredictable, there is neither dependable
air conditioning nor light in the museum. So conservation work is
impossible, and the slow checking of objects in the underground store rooms
is out of the question.

In such circumstances the museum can do virtually nothing. Even if staff
risk travelling across the city, they cannot work when they get there.
Colleagues from abroad are eager to help, and have done so in the past, but
with foreigners having become targets of hostage-taking or assassination, it
is hard to see how institutions can responsibly allow expert staff to travel
to Iraq. Serious engagement of foreign specialists with the archaeological
sites cannot even be considered. 

The British government committed itself shortly after the invasion to
helping with the cultural reconstruction of Iraq. It has brought a number of
Iraqi colleagues to the UK for training; three archaeologists from Babylon
are at the moment in the British Museum, but there has been no concerted
campaign of assistance. By the time this review is published, there will be
a new government in both London and Baghdad. The new Secretary of State for
Culture in the British Government must seize this opportunity. Working with
Iraqi colleagues, the British government must construct a plan of
co-operation, training and investment over several years, beginning with an
intensive programme of training for Iraqis in Britain, and preparing for the
moment when it will be possible for us to offer help of all sorts on the
ground in Iraq. Throughout the UK, individuals and institutions are eager to
do whatever they can, if the government will only provide the resources and
the framework. It is hard to see what task could be more urgent for the new
Secretary of State, or where more good will and energy could be counted on
to produce results. But with things as they stand, nothing can happen unless
the government will play its part.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/