Further Iraq updates

The Art Newspaper has just published a new summary of recent developments. It appears that the Warka vase will indeed need to have its old breaks re-repaired; no mentions so far of new damage. Other significant news:

Iraqi specialists and British Museum conservators are this week opening the crates of the Nimrud gold, which were stored in the vaults of the central bank. These vaults had been flooded with sewage (not clean water as was reported), but most of the gold is undamaged. So far only a handful of the objects unpacked will require conservation - a bronze mirror, a silver mirror and bowl, and carbonised wood with gold inlays. This same vault also contains other precious objects from Ur and Nimrud (including ivories), but these crates have not yet been examined.

Ancient ivory is very fragile indeed, and these artifacts may be in parlous state indeed after their long immersion. The Nimrud treasures may have been found, but despite the news reports, not all of them may be safe and sound.

Meanwhile Dan Cruickshank’s BBC television film on the Baghdad museum transmitted on 8 June has proved highly controversial. He concluded that some missing objects may have been taken before the war, that some looting was an “inside job”, that some senior staff had been active members of Ba’athist Party, and that part of the museum building was used as a military post by Saddam Hussein’s forces during the fighting. Most of these accusations were denied by Iraqi museum officials.

One of the most damning moments was a filmed scene inside a storeroom, which had been entered by US Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who forced the steel doors. The storeroom was in a state of complete chaos, with unrecorded objects littering the floor. Museum director Nawala Al-Mutwalli admitted that it had been left in this condition before the war by her staff - and the scene was not the result of looting. However, international experts who know the Baghdad museum believe that the film gave an unfair account of the difficult situation.

We shall try to explain in a future post (or addendum) exactly what these "international experts" are claiming, since this article only mentions them in passing.

Finally, some information on the situation in museums outside Baghdad:

Mosul has by far the most important museum outside Baghdad, and initially it was feared that it too had been very badly looted in the last days of the war. But in a report from Mosul for Archaeology Magazine (July-August), Roger Atwood says that most of the important objects had been sent to Baghdad for safekeeping, some leaving only three days before the bombing. It is believed that these 5,500 objects are all safe.

In the main galleries of the Mosul Museum, 34 artefacts were looted (by coincidence, a very similar number as those taken from the galleries of the Baghdad museum). The largest loss was some of the bronze panels that had hung on the 9th century BC Balawat Gate (a set of 30 panels were taken, although 54 others are safe, some of which are damaged). Also missing from the displays are three large cuneiform tablets from Khorsabad and one from Nineveh (another tablet is damaged). A stone lion from Hatra and two 12th century Islamic doors were damaged.

Two of Mosul Museum’s storage rooms were entered, but one contained very heavy objects which could not be removed. In the other store, a dozen pots and tablets were broken, and an unknown number looted. The museum’s windows were also shattered from the impact of cruise missiles on nearby buildings.

The museum at Babylon was looted and badly damaged. Initial information suggests that that original artefacts had been removed for safekeeping and only replicas were lost. The site museum at Nineveh appears to have been undamaged. The Nasiriyah museum also seems to have been saved. It is currently a bivouac for US Marines, and their camp beds lie between copies of Hatra statues and Assyrian reliefs.

UPDATE: Here is further confirmation that the damage to the Warka vase is not new:

Ahmed Kamel, the museum's acting director general, said the vase is in no worse shape than when it was discovered by German archaeologists in 1940, near Samawa in southern Iraq. "It was in pieces then, and we restored it," he said. "Now the looters have broken it again, but it can be repaired."

Kamel also stated that the vase was vulnerable because it had been in a workshop undergoing restoration at the time of the looting.

Posted by David on June 16, 2003 10:40 PM