April 17, 2003

Museum update

The American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP) appealed to the Pentagon during the run-up to the war, asking for protection of Iraqi museums. Who are its members?? Well, they have no web site under that name, according to Google. This article has some background information on them. If the quotes in the article are to be believed, some of them are art dealers and traders who have made no secret of their desires to get artifacts out of state museums in the past. If that's the case, one wonders how fervent their pleas were (yes, yes; this is how conspiracy theories are constructed. I know that. However, past statements can be indicative of attitude).

That essay has a lot of links at the bottom of the page; this one is a remarkably thorough compilation of news stories about the destruction, collected by someone who's apparently a member of the Archaeological Institute of America.

It now appears that the looting was systematic, with the thieves knowing what to take, and that some lower-level employees may have been accomplices. Art thieves have become more organized since 1991, one expert said.

What was Iraq like, post-Ottoman and pre-Hussein, you ask? I found this thumbnail sketch pretty informative.

Posted by Linkmeister at April 17, 2003 09:41 PM
Comments

I should have read you before I posted.

Posted by: bunny at April 18, 2003 08:36 AM

Scoop! ;)

Posted by: Linkmeister at April 18, 2003 08:40 PM

I saw picture of what the "thieves" did to some artifacts...
They withstood destruction since the beginning of time..
Now in a few seconds some crazy bastards have destroyed them forever...
The US sure Liberated Iraq didn't it??????

Posted by: toxiclabrat at April 19, 2003 07:09 AM