Nimrud treasures recovered

From the Washington Post:

Almost all of the priceless items feared stolen from the Baghdad Museum when it was ransacked by looters have been found safe in a secret vault, the U.S.-led administration for Iraq said on Saturday.

A special team of U.S. investigators working at the museum to check the extent of the looting has concluded that around 3,000 items were still lost or stolen, compared with initial estimates of up to 170,000. Most of the missing items were used for research, rather than exhibition.

"Earlier this week, 179 boxes that contained the vast majority of the museum's exhibition collection were discovered safe in a secret vault," the administration said in a statement. "The discovery of these boxes containing nearly 8,000 of the most important items from the museum's collection means that the work of the investigation team is drawing to a close" . . .

Another trove of priceless jewelry, the Treasure of Nimrud, was found in a flooded Central Bank vault on Thursday. The Nimrud artefacts, hundreds of gold and gem-studded pieces from the ancient kingdom of Assyria, were retrieved by U.S. investigators after the vaults below the gutted shell of the looted bank building were drained . . .

U.S. customs agents who helped with the recovery of the treasure said that when they first entered the vaults they found bodies of looters killed in shootouts with rival gangs. But the seals on the crates of treasure were intact.

The U.S.-led administration said the Nimrud treasure seemed to be in good condition. A team of experts from the British Museum would arrive soon to assess conservation needs . . .

Despite the recovery of many of the museum's treasures in the last week, the U.S.-led administration said 47 items from the main exhibition -- the museum's most treasured pieces -- had not been found.

Rather misleading spin to say the pieces on exhibit were the most treasured -- that might better apply to the pieces hidden in the bank vaults -- especially since earlier reports noted that many of the items left on display were not moved because of their size and weight.

FURTHER NOTE: The BBC is just one of many sources to state:

Other items had been voluntarily returned by museum staff who had taken them for safekeeping at the height of the war. Staff opposed to the US-led invasion had been reluctant, however, to disclose the existence of the secret vault until now.

Leaving open the question of what led to the change of heart. Meanwhile, Friday's Wall Street Journal contained a quite extensive article on the Nimrud treasure recovery (sorry, no link), which also mentioned the discovery of the body of one looter who had attempted to blast open a bank vault with an RPG from a range of ten feet. This discovery was also noted here, in an article that also mentions prewar attempts to steal the Nimrud material:

Over the years, there have been attempts to remove the pieces from the hiding place, [Muhammad, deputy governor of the bank], said. Various people have at various times arrived with letters purporting to authorize them to take the treasures. Muhammad prefers not to reveal their identities. "Leave the dead dead," he said.

AND A FURTHER NOTE: The NY Times, despite its reputation for in-depth coverage of arts and culture news, took until Sunday to report the successful recovery of the Nimrud treasure (a story all over the news services Thursday night, and on the front page of Friday's Wall Street Journal). The Times' notice of the recovery was tiny, buried deep in the Sunday Arts section, though more detail was provided in another article, which however bore the headline "Iraq Museum to Reopen Displaying Lost Treasure" -- a lead-in clearly calculated to appear more like an arts calendar update than breaking news.

Posted by David on June 7, 2003 2:18 PM