- E. Slater, "A
Search for Thieves. The Calculated Nature of the Thefts from Iraq's
National Museum Indeed Points to Experts," in Los Angeles Times,
May 10, 2003: "The thieves worked at night, setting afire shreds of
foam rubber to light their way through the blacked-out hallways and
subterranean corridors of Iraq's National Museum. They passed though an
8-inch-thick steel door, broke down a wooden door beyond, descended a
staircase, negotiated labyrinthine passages and, using heavy tools,
smashed through a cinderblock wall to arrive at a little-known storage
room. Then they made
for the room's far northwest corner. The burglars left hundreds
of antiquities in the room untouched, it appears, finding interest only
in the contents of 90 plastic boxes buried beneath others. The
containers held thousands of small, ancient amulets, pendants and
engraved cylinders once used by rulers and scribes to mark parchments.
With gunfire outside still raging, they fled with the small artifacts
and have not been seen since." "Thousands of pieces, however, are
missing. Although many of the thefts are being attributed to
looters, some appear almost certainly to be the work either of
insiders or experts." "Thieves and looters destroyed 17 display
cases out of nearly 400 in the museum's main galleries, damaging at
least 22 major items and stealing at least 38, ..." "The items
missing by the thousands appear to be relatively less valuable,
smaller pieces -- many of them not on display but kept locked in the
basement of the facility. 'Every piece is priceless,' said
Muayad Said Damerji, senior advisor to Iraq's Ministry of Culture. 'The
collection was as important to the world as to Iraqis. Many
other collections have large gaps, and so they compare what they find
to what we have here." "Museum employees also secured thousands of
other items in vaults in the museum's basement and locked facilities
around the city. When electricity was restored at the museum this
week, investigators were able to open those vaults and begin
an inventory. Numerous other stashes have yet to be visited." "'To know
what is missing we first have to know what was here," said
Bogdonos, the head of the team, ... 'But we have to start somewhere,
so for now we are assuming that the things employees say are safe
in a vault are indeed there.'" "... more than 700 other pieces have
been brought in. ... However, only about two dozen of the 700 pieces
appear to be authentic, investigators say. [another important piece
of info usually missed by the mass media] The rest are replicas from
the museum or collectibles shops." "U.S. soldiers say they found
rocket-propelled grenade caches on two museum rooftops, and at least
two fighting positions inside buildings -- one of them in
the adjacent Children's Museum. Kalashnikov rifle parts, a grenade,
magazine carriers and other evidence suggest Iraqi soldiers fought from
the buildings. A room in the Children's Museum shows signs of
bloodstains and has a massive hole in one wall, after a U.S. tank
returned fire.
The other fighting position was pierced by a 25-millimeter shell,
apparently from a Bradley Fighting Vehicle." [more detail about the
attackers from inside the Museum building!]; "As suspicion grows that
museum workers either carried out some of the thefts or helped plan
them, museum officials have largely stopped granting interviews. The
employees and
officials 'are getting nervous,' said one investigator, adding that
some had not seemed particularly helpful. [let's hope these ongoing
insinuations can soon be resolved one way or another, that much we
owe the museum staff] Investigators, meanwhile, are questioning people
on the street, visiting shops and bazaars and imploring border guards
to be on the lookout. At the same time, they are trying to work closely
with the people who know the museum best -- the workers -- even as the
evidence seems to point in their direction."
|
Photo 1: "Returned. U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Roberto
Pineiro holds up an artifact looted from and returned to Iraq’s
national museum under an amnesty program. (Rick Loomis / LAT)"
Photo 2: "When the dust settles. Investigators are trying to
locate important items looted from Iraq’s National Museum and round up
others that were taken for safekeeping after the invasion. (Rick Loomis
/ LAT)" |
