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Just how bad was the looting of Iraq’s museum and archaeological sites? According to Salon’s experts, many ancient artifacts have come home, but the looting continues.

Mar. 20, 2008 |

Salon Conversations

Among the many unintended and unforeseen consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq that began five years ago this week was the wholesale looting of Iraq’s museums and archaeological sites. Iraq has been called the cradle of civilization. Starting with the Sumerian civilization, which more than 5,000 years ago produced what may be the world’s first examples of writing and math, the area centered on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and known as Mesopotamia has been home to a succession of cultures — Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian. Many believe southern Iraq was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. But within weeks of the first American airstrike, the cradle of civilization had been robbed. Baghdad’s National Museum of Iraq, among the globe’s premier repositories of antiquities, was ransacked over the course of a week in April 2003. Statues were dragged down the steps, artifacts six millennia old were carried off in plastic bags. American soldiers were not dispatched to protect the museum until the thieves were long gone.

It was partly in response to media queries about the unimpeded looting of Iraq’s cultural heritage that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld uttered the infamous and cavalier rejoinder, “Democracy is messy.” Five years after the sacking of Iraq, we decided to ask the experts how bad it really was, how many priceless antiquities have come back to their homeland, and what, if anything, has changed about the Bush administration’s approach to protecting Iraq’s history.

On behalf of Salon, Brian Rose, professor of archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Archaeological Institute of America, conducted a round table with Donny George Youkhanna, former chief of antiquities for the Iraqi government and director general of the National Museum of Iraq; Cori Wegener, an associate curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts who, as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, was called up in 2003 and sent to Iraq to assess the damage to the museum; and Micah Garen, a documentary filmmaker, photographer and journalist who went to Iraq shortly after the invasion to document the looting of archaeological sites. Youkhanna, who is known as Donny George in the West, was forced to flee Iraq in 2006 and is now a visiting professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Wegener is presently president of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, which was formed in 2006 to protect cultural property worldwide during armed conflict. Garen, who wrote a book about his experience as a hostage in Iraq called “American Hostage,” is working on a feature-length documentary about the looting. The round-table participants spoke by phone on Friday, March 14.

– Mark Schone, Salon

The article continues at:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/03/20/iraq_roundtable/print.html

Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation
presents

Protecting the Past:
the Fate of Cultural Property in Times of Armed Conflict

April 24, 2008
12:30 -3:00 p.m.

George Washington University
Jack Morton Auditorium
Media and Public Affairs Building (first floor), 805 21st Street, N.W.

Sponsored by:
George Washington University and Andrews Kurth LLP

Register Online to Attend “Protecting the Past”

Panel I - Looking Back: Lessons Learned from Past Conflicts

Individual presentations, followed by questions:

• Lynn H. Nicholas, independent researcher of Nazi era social and cultural policy and author of “Rape of Europa,” will discuss Nazi and World War II art looting, wartime preservation measures and post-War restitution [bio]
• Robert M. Edsel, author of the non-fiction book, “Rescuing Da Vinci,” co-producer of the documentary film, “The Rape of Europa,” and Founder and President of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, will discuss the role of the WWII Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives troops in protecting, preserving and restituting looted art. [bio]
• András J. Riedlmayer, Harvard University, will discuss the destruction of cultural property during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. [bio]
• Hays Parks, U.S. Department of Defense, will discuss the history of and U.S. position toward the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. [bio]
• Panel Chair: Thomas R. Kline, Attorney, Andrews & Kurth and Adjunct Assistant Professor, GWU, Museum Studies Program. [bio]

Panel II - Looking Forward: Applying the Lessons Learned.

Round Table Discussion, followed by questions to members of both panels.

• Corine Wegener, President, U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield; Associate Curator, Architecture, Design, Decorative Arts, Craft, and Sculpture at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Major (retired) in the U.S. Army Reserve, will discuss looting and destruction of cultural property at the Iraq National Museum and recovery efforts and also the role of the Blue Shield in protecting cultural property in future conflicts. [bio]
• John Russell, Professor, Massachusetts College of Art, and former Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Coalition Provisional Authority, will discuss damage done to cultural heritage during the Iraq War and efforts toward cooperation between the U.S. military and cultural heritage professionals of different nationalities. [bio]
• Richard Jackson, Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters and Army Colonel (Ret.), will discuss current attitudes of the U.S. military toward the Hague Convention and obligations to preserve cultural heritage during armed conflict. [bio]
• Panel Chair: Patty Gerstenblith, Professor, DePaul College of Law, and President, Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation. [bio]

Register Online to Attend “Protecting the Past”