USCBS News

The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago

invites you to attend a book release and policy briefing

Antiquities under Siege:

Cultural Heritage Protection after the Iraq War

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

9:00–10:30 a.m.

National Press Club

529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Free event, RSVP required

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu

773.834.3986

PANELISTS

· Lawrence Rothfield, Editor, Antiquities under Siege; Faculty Director, Cultural Policy Center, University of Chicago

· Col. Matthew Bogdanos, USMC Reserves; leader of the investigation into the antiquities looting during Operation Iraqi Freedom

· Donny George Youkhanna, former Director-General, Iraq Museum; former President, Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage

· Patty Gerstenblith, Professor, DePaul College of Law; President, Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation

· McGuire Gibson, Professor of Archaeology, University of Chicago; President, The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq

· Corine Wegener, Associate Curator, Minneapolis Institute of Art; President, U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Saddam Hussein’s government fell in April 2003, news accounts detailed the pillaging of the Iraq Museum. Less dramatic, though far more devastating, has been the subsequent epidemic of looting at thousands of archaeological sites around the country. Illegal digging on a massive scale continues to this day.

As the fifth anniversary of the invasion approaches, Antiquities under Siege, written by internationally renowned experts from a range of fields, recounts what happened and what continues to happen. Panelists will discuss why pre-invasion plans failed to protect Iraq’s artifacts, and identify procedures and strategies designed to safeguard antiquities during and after armed conflict.

Available from AltaMira Press in April 2008

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu

1155 East 60th Street, Suite 285, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Phone: 773.702.4407 Fax: 773.702.0926

The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary center providing research and informing policy that affects the arts, humanities and cultural heritage.

The Center was founded in 1999 as a joint initiative of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the Division of Humanities.

 

Cori Wegener in front of the Iraq National Museum, May 2003

April 2, 2008, Minnesota Public Radio - Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer

 

Listen to feature audio

For more photos and information go to: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/02/looting/

It was five years ago next week that looters ransacked the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. The looting took place over the course of just a few days, shortly after the war began.

 

Looters took an estimated 15,000 objects from the museum, sometimes carrying them away in plastic bags. The museum had one of the world’s top collections of antiquities, located in a part of the world that’s often referred to as the cradle of civilization.

 

In May of 2003, shortly after the initial looting, then-Army-Reservist Cori Wegener was sent to Iraq to assess damage to the museum. Wegener is an associate curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and she’s been working ever since to increase awareness about protecting cultural property. She spoke with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer.

 

For more photos and information go to: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/02/looting/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 19, 2008

Carleton College, Northfield Minnesota

Carleton will participate in the Global Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum, taking place April 10 in the Language & Dining Center Room 104 beginning at 8 p.m. Joining museums, schools and organizations around the world, faculty and students will pause to remember the fifth anniversary of the cultural crime of the century: the looting of the Iraq National Museum, which occurred in Baghdad on April 10th through 12th, 2003.

At venues from San Francisco to Baghdad, across the United States and around the world, the Global Candlelight Vigil will call attention to the thousands of stolen antiquities that are still missing from the Iraq Museum as well as the plunder of historical monuments and archaeological sites across Iraq and around the world.Carleton’s Candlelight Vigil event will consist of viewing the film, “Robbing the Cradle of Civilization: The Looting of Iraq’s Ancient Treasures,” followed by a candlelight vigil. “We felt it was important to be part of this effort to raise public awareness about the growing crisis of cultural heritage destruction, which is of increasing concern to museums, universities and archaeologists in order to recognize the need to preserve the ultimate non-renewable resource, the intact evidence of our ancient past,” says Nancy Wilkie, professor of classics and anthropology and member of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee of the U. S. Department of State. [Wilkie is also a USCBS board member]

“By organizing a global event on the fifth anniversary of this great tragedy, we can call the world’s attention not only to the Iraq Museum, but to the ongoing destruction of global cultural heritage,” says Cindy Ho, president of the US-based non-profit organization SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone, Inc., which has organized the Global Candlelight Vigil event with the endorsement of the Iraq Museum’s former Director General, Dr. Donny George, who is featured in a ‘call to action’ video on the SAFE website.

http://apps.carleton.edu/news/news/?story_id=394615

Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Five Years Later

Five years ago on April 10-12, after U.S. forces toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad was systematically looted, along with many regional museums. Far worse has been the subsequent looting and destruction of archaeological sites throughout Iraq. While many artifacts stolen from the Baghdad museum have been recovered, archaeological sites continue to be plundered to supply the antiquities trade, in the absence of security and jobs for much of Iraq’s population. The pillage of sites and museums has caused irreparable damage to the cultural heritage of Iraq and all humankind.

To commemorate these tragic events, and to honor those who have worked to protect and restore Iraq’s cultural heritage, Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE) is coordinating candlelight vigils and related events worldwide. Go to SAFE’s website to learn more and participate in a vigil near you:

http://www.savingantiquities.org/candlelightvigils.php

In Minneapolis we are participating in SAFE’s efforts on the evening of Thursday, April 10, with a screening of the following film:

“Robbing the Cradle of Civilization — The Looting of Iraq’s Ancient Treasures”
Thursday, April 10, 2008, 7 pm
Nicholson Hall, Room 135, University of Minnesota (East Bank)

Discussion and candles (of the electric variety) will surround the film screening.

This event has been organized by Eva von Dassow, faculty member in Classical and Near Eastern Studies, with the collaboration of Cori Wegener, curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and founder and president of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield. Wegener was deployed in Iraq to oversee restoration of the Iraq National Museum.