Baghdad Museum: only 33 major pieces still missing

Much in this Washington Post article has already appeared elsewhere. Here are some excerpts of particular interest:

On Saturday, a team of U.S. investigators from the Customs Service and State Department released a summary of a preliminary report that concluded that 3,000 pieces were missing. And more importantly, of the 8,000 or so exhibit-quality, world-class pieces of jewelry, statues and cuneiform clay tablets, only 47 were unaccounted for.

Today, Iraqi officials at the museum confirmed the U.S. numbers, with a slight adjustment. "There are only 33 pieces from the main collections that are unaccounted for," [Donny] George said. "Not 47. Some more pieces have been returned." Museum staff members had taken some of the more valuable items home and are now returning them.

George is a respected and internationally known archaeologist and administrator. He apologized for the confusion, which has caused anguish among Mesopotamia scholars and the general public alike, but essentially said it was not his fault.

The Post thus joining the reflexive communal genuflection before the high priests of culture. For less starry-eyed views of George, read here and here.

George conceded that during the 48 hours when his museum was being looted, he was extremely upset with the Americans. "I was very angry at the time, so much anger," George said. "But we should stop blaming each other. We're working together now."

What do you mean, "we"? And George still does not appear to have faced up to, let alone apologized for, his loyal service to Saddam Hussein -- calling into question exactly what made him so upset when the Americans stormed into Baghdad. Meanwhile, he continues to blame others for his earlier statements while avoiding the issue of why he made no attempt to correct them:

The museum was indeed heavily looted, but its Iraqi directors confirmed today that the losses at the institute did not number 170,000 artifacts as originally reported in news accounts. . .

"I said there were 170,000 pieces in the entire museum collection," said Donny George as he stood with beads of sweat glistening on his forehead in his barren office at the museum. "Not 170,000 pieces stolen." George . . . the source for the original number, said the theft of 170,000 pieces would have been almost impossible: "No, no, no. That would be every single object we have!"

It should also be noted that since the museum's most important pieces had been put into safe storage long before the outbreak of war, museum employees could hardly have been unaware of those items' absence at the time of the looting -- further calling into question their motives in overplaying the losses at the time:

Art historian John Russell, an Iraq expert at Boston's Massachusetts College of Art, was part of a UNESCO mission that visited the National Museum in mid-May to assess the damage from looting. He recalled walking through the galleries with curator Nawala Mutawali and pointing at empty pedestals and cornices where world-famous artifacts had once rested. "She'd kind of smile," Russell said about the curator. "She'd say, it's okay, it's fine." Russell, too, had heard of the secret vaults. "They won't talk about it, but almost everything was saved," Russell said.

It sounds as if Russell has put himself in a rather precarious position, having spoken out against American negligence without disclosing that the reports of losses were being drastically exaggerated.

"You remember when everybody said the looting was an inside job," he added. "Well, there was an inside job, except the staff did exactly what they were supposed to do." Russell said that museum authorities also told him the archive was intact.

Although there are still thousands of "minor" pieces missing, many of which are of considerable value, difficult to trace, and easy to sell. Realistically, they are precisely what savvy thieves would seek out, not internationally-known masterpieces.

Posted by David on June 9, 2003 10:44 AM