World's Leading Museums Send Emergency Team to Rebuild Iraq's Shattered Cultural Heritage

The Independent reports that Neil MacGregor, the British Museum's director will coordinate an alliance of curators and restorers from institutions including The Louvre, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, New York's Metropolitan and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. They will assess the extent of the cultural "catastrophe" caused by the organized looting. As many as 170,000 early Mesopotamian antiquities are still missing. Mosul Museum was also ransacked.

"The first thing we must do," said MacGregor, "is send a fact-finding mission out there. We also need to get governments to stop anyone from importing any of these items into their countries."

Mr. MacGregor, an outspoken critic of the American forces who did not protect museums, expressed concern for major archaeological sites, like Nineveh and Ur, some of the earliest and most important cities on Earth.

Mr. MacGregor suspects that looting gangs had links to unscrupulous Western collectors. Still, a group of private American benefactors has agreed to devise a reward scheme encouraging people to return stolen objects.

Call for the Arts Community to Help Rebuild Iraqi Theater, Library, and Museum

Even from this safe distance it becomes numbing to read about the many tragedies and atrocities in Iraq. The arts community may be able to feel a sense of purpose behind a project to help the Iraqi people rebuild or restore some of their cultural heritage. Lisa@lysistrataproject.org forwarded news from Trish Schuh who recently met the Director of the Al Rashid National Theatre in Baghdad. According to Trish, when told of the Lysistrata Project, "he was extremely moved and said with tears in his eyes; 'Thank you and the American people.. thank you, thank God for you.' " After returning from Baghdad, Trish received news that the Al Rashid National Theater has been ransacked and burned. Trish is looking for suggestions for helping the Iraqi people rebuild. "We owe the Iraqi people to help somehow. I just dont know how yet..."

Let's all put our heads together.
Anyone with ideas can call or email Trish Schuh at 212-533-4702 or hsvariety@yahoo.com.

By the way, Lisa's site, lysistrataproject.org is an online resource against war. And lysistrataproject.com put on the inspired event of worldwide readings of Lysistrata on 03/03/03.

Update on the Destruction of Iraq's Cultural Heritage

April 17, 2003 Democracy Now broadcast a debate with Geoffrey Wainwright, President of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and William Pearlstein, treasurer of the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP). Controversy surrounds the intentions of the ACCP, a coalition of wealthy and influential American antiquities collectors. William Pearlstein claims good intentions and deplores the pillaging. He agrees that any sale of the artifacts would be illegal.

At least four of the looted objects were so large that a fork-lift truck would be necessary to move them, according to a historian from the British Museum. Among the missing are: the limestone Warqa Vase of 3,500 BC, the bull's head harp of Ur, and the squatting Akkadian king of 2,300 BC.

Attack on the Culture of a People

Dick Gordon of The Connection reported about looting of the National Archeological Museum of Baghdad, crunching glass underfoot as he walked. Muayed Said Damerji, the director general of antiquities in Iraq joined him in Baghdad along with John Malcolm Russell of the Massachusetts College of Arts from Boston as they discussed the great losses at the National Archaeological Museum and the National Library in Baghdad. Muayed Said Damerjii reported that the looting occurred under the eyes of American Military who were not ordered to protect the museum or library. The Hague convention outlines the responsibility of conquering nations to protect the cultural heritage of a people during war. The looting was done by professionals who knew what they were looking for. They had time to enter the building and stake out the artifacts before returning with not widely available specialized glass cutters. Looters took the objects they wanted and trashed Others.

Art Daily reports that in January a group of collectors (the ACCP) met with President Bush urging him to relax antiquities laws. This week an international group of archaeologists petitioned the UN and Unesco, a cultural education body, urging them to safeguard the priceless heritage. The Guardian printed their petition with a list of demands for the US/allied military command and whatever body oversees post-war Iraq.

Participants of The Connection program stressed that "the people of Iraq" did not loot their heritage, as reported in the press. It was a select few. If prisoners riot, the press does not report that people of America created chaos. Muayed Said Damerji called the looting an attack on the culture of a people. This lawless tragedy robs a people of a past and of their roots. To be replaced by what? Some form of fundamentalism?

Among the artifacts lost are a backlog of cuneiform tablets that were not yet translated. Professors and students were working on the preservation and translation of the tablets. This is the equivalent of losing the library covering the history of 3,000 - 0 BC.