Under the cold gaze of dozens of heavily armed US troops, the first visitors were allowed back into the Iraq museum yesterday to admire treasures from its collection of Mesopotamian art that escaped the looters who ransacked the building when Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed.
The exhibition was a one-day wonder, more of a photo-opportunity than a real revival of what was once one of the world’s best collections of pre-Hellenic statuary, gold jewellery, and cuneiform tablets.
”The wound I had in my heart starts healing today,” said Donny George, the museum’s director of studies, as diplomats and journalists swarmed through three rooms in one wing of the building which closed again last night. ”It’s important that people know the museum is coming back. We hope to open properly within a year or two.”
A few priceless items on display had been stolen but were recently returned under a ”no questions asked” amnesty that allowed people to bring stolen goods back with no fear of arrest. One of the best of these, the Warka vase — a 5ft-high alabaster vessel from 3000BC encircled by several layers of sculpted figures, still with traces of red and grain colouring — lay in a glass case on its side yesterday, smashed by thieves into 15 pieces but at least back where it belongs.
Jostling rather than looting was the main danger yesterday, as Paul Bremer, Iraq’s US administrator, surrounded by security men, photographers and museum staff, pushed through two stiflingly hot galleries past sculptures that were unprotected from the crowd by ropes or barriers. Another recently returned item, a statue of King Shalmanezzer III from 852BC, looked vulnerable on its plinth.
Beside the US troops with automatic rifles, black-uniformed Italian carabinieri patrolled the surging crowd as it squeezed through 15ft-high gates from Nimrud depicting huge winged bulls with human heads, similar to those exhibited in the British Museum.
Visitor numbers were restricted for a smaller room, housing the gold treasures of Nimrud. This collection of exquisitely crafted crowns, bracelets, cups and pendants was only discovered in 1989. It was on show for a few months before being hidden at the start of the first Gulf war in 1990, and has never been exhibited since. During this year’s US invasion it remained in a vault of the central bank, but although the building was looted, set on fire and partly flooded, the collection survived intact.
High in the minds of most visitors yesterday was the unresolved mystery of who stole the museum’s best items and why initial reports of the losses were exaggerated. They sent shockwaves round the world, becoming a symbol of the lawlessness of postwar Iraq and America’s failure to establish security after its quick victory. A criminal investigation is under way, with Interpol and FBI teams working in Baghdad to interview witnesses and potential suspects.
Dr George acknowledged yesterday that he had been the source for some of the early reports about the extent of the museum’s losses. ”It was a mistake and a misunderstanding. I was saying there were more than 170 000 pieces in the museum but it was taken that 170 000 were missing. I never said that,” he said.
Thirty-two of the 42 most valuable items were still missing, but many other pieces reported as lost had never been stolen or were later returned, he said. He declined to quantify how many pieces were unaccounted for beyond saying there were thousands that had gone from the storerooms.
”But don’t just talk about numbers. A bronze relief from 4000BC is worth 100 Mona Lisas, and it’s a loss to all humanity.” The museum had no inventory of its collection, not even on a handwritten card index, let alone on computer.
Dr George rejected the allegation that some of the looting was done by museum staff. But, he said, it was not just vandalism: some of the thieves were professional. ”They had plans, glasscutters, and knowledge. We found keys brought by the looters. They opened the museum director’s safe where they found other keys.”
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, a New York homicide prosecutor, who is in the US Marine reserves, has spent several weeks as head of the investigating team. An archaeological enthusiast with an MA in classical art from Columbia University, he also played down the numbers issue yesterday. ”A clay pot which was found at an ancient site in 50 pieces is counted as 50 items. A necklace with 50 beads also counts as 50,” he said. ”Almost 3 000 items have been recovered, but over 12 000 are still missing.”
Col Bogdanos divided the looters into three. There were thieves who went through the public galleries, picking out the most valuable or easily transportable items.
”They were selective in what they stole,” he said. When it came to the items looted from storage chambers, two dynamics were visible. ”One was absolute indiscriminate looting. Bags and boxes were taken from one end of the museum and dropped at the other. About 3 000 pieces were taken, and 2 900 have been recovered.”
The ”most troubling” issue was the theft of items ”in the most remote corner of the most remote room. Other stuff on the way to it was not taken. You couldn’t get there unless you knew it well. This was the priceless collection of cylinder seals and Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic coins”.
He said the ”no questions asked” amnesty programme had brought almost 3 000 items back. About half were brought by people who claimed to have held them for safe keeping or been given them by friends. The other 1 500 were seized after tipoffs.
”The Iraqi people have been wonderful. My response to someone who comes up with an item is not to ask questions, but to say: ‘Thank you. I appreciate your sense of honour. Let’s have a cup of tea.’ ”
Unlike the days of looting when US tanks intermittently drove past the museum without stopping the theft, security yesterday was massive with armoured vehicles in the museum grounds with dozens of troops. Visitors queuing to be searched as they went in heard an explosion and several rifle shots. It turned out that 300 yards away men on a motorbike had fired a grenade at a US Humvee, wounding a soldier. Troops reacted with fire that wounded several bystanders.
Dressed in his Marine Corps combat fatigues, Col Bogdanos reacted angrily to a question about US laxity in the days after troops entered Baghdad. ”Iraqis fired rocket-propelled grenades from the roof of the children’s museum here, listen to me, the children’s museum. All the items in the world, including my beloved Athens, are not worth the loss of a single human life,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â