[CPProt.net] Poor security shuts Iraqi museum

[Ellie Bruggeman]

Poor security shuts Iraqi museum

Iraq Museum director Donny George takes security a bit more seriously 
than most other museum heads would.

Books on his shelves summarise his struggle: Institutional Trauma: Major 
Change in Museums and its Effect on Staff, Museum Security and 
Protection and Moving the Mountain: A Guide to Moving Collections.

"I tell the guards, if they shoot one bullet, then you shoot 100. We 
must show that the place is well-protected."

With two Iraq Museum guards in hospital after just such an attack, 
George believes fighters are testing security with a view to repeating 
the massive looting that followed the US-led invasion of March 2003.

Reopening delayed

And that is why the museum's reopening has been delayed indefinitely, as 
car bombs continue to explode and staff often find their way to work 
blocked by anti-fighter sweeps in what George says is a "hot" Baghdad 
neighbourhood.

"We thought everything would calm down after the [January] elections, so 
we planned an exhibition for July, but instead things have escalated.

"The museum is a soft target and at the moment if we wanted to hold an 
exhibition we would need the whole Iraqi army to protect it."

But George, 55, and his colleagues are not sitting around idly waiting 
for peace.

The museum's repainted corridors are bustling with activity, although 
some of it is from archaeologists who have come from the provinces to 
report looting.

Elsewhere, young conservators work on broken artefacts in rebuilt 
laboratories. Others carry out the tedious task of cataloguing, while 
the director steers the museum through these dark times.

Artefacts found

George says that of 15,000 treasures stolen in the chaos following 
Baghdad's fall, about half have been intercepted, from Kuwait to Japan 
and Italy. But the museum is far from ready to take them back.

"They're safe with the authorities there," he says, praising the 
cooperation of countries such as Jordan and the United States, but 
accusing others of inaction.

"Unfortunately, Iran and Turkey have never gotten back to us about what 
they've seized, and we know they have artefacts."

The museum's halls, once a repository of the finest pieces from what is 
often called the cradle of civilisation, now house empty display 
cabinets, some smashed, all veiled in dust.

The Assyrian hall offers the only reminder that this was once a 
world-class museum, lined with ancient sculptures and winged creatures.

These were simply too heavy to be stolen, and perhaps not ornate enough 
to attract looters' predatory attention.

Recent history

Outside, the museum's courtyard is filled with objects from Iraq's more 
recent history under deposed leader Saddam Hussein.

Two of his garish gold-painted carriages squat under tarpaulins in a 
dusty corner, while nearby, half a dozen stacked freight containers 
filled with kitsch from his palaces resemble a modern art installation.

"We'll look after those objects, but we won't put them on display," says 
George, while admitting the time will come for a museum to Hussein's era 
- as long as it is not propagandistic.

"There could be such a museum in one of his palaces, because he's part 
of the country's history, positive or negative. Museums are there to 
teach and show the facts. People should then judge for themselves."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/