- Title: IRAQ: IRAQ REMOVES ITS PRICELESS TREASURES TO SECRET CACHES FOR PROTECTION.
- Date: 30th June 2004
- Summary: (U6) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 29, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. ASSYRIAN HALL AT IRAQ'S MUSEUM 2. STATUE OF ASSYRIAN KING 3. STATUE OF ASSYRIAN KING 4. EMPTY HALL OF MUSEUM AND EMPTY SHOWCASES 5. EMPTY SHOWCASES 6. COVERED NEW CABINETS TO STORE ARTIFACTS 7. BROKEN SHOWCASES 8. PIECE OF BROKEN GLASS 9. EMPTY HALL 10. STATUE RESEMBLES HEAD OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY 11. GUARD WALKING IN A ROOM STORING BROKEN STATUES 12. EMPTY HALL OF MUSEUM Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA5ASDAU2JKG4KWW3YEZ39RTQ97
- Story Text: Iraq removes its priceless treasures to secret
caches for protection.
Iraq has started packing away the fabulous treasures
of Assyria, Sumeria and Babylon at its largest
archaeological museums in a precautionary move to protect
them, a lesson learnt from the looting spree, which
followed the fall of Saddam Hussein last year.
Sources said that easily portable treasures including
finest jewellery, statues, pottery and other prized
artefacts have been moved and packed into crates and stored
in secret caches to avoid possible theft or damage, while
monumental ones are locked away in the halls of the museum.
Museum officials declined to comment on the report in
front of camera.
Prior to the U.S. invasion of Baghdad, the government
moved some of the treasures of the museum to the central
bank and stored them in vaults, for their protection.
The museum, which was heavily looted and damaged after
the U.S. invasion of Baghdad was refurbished and its broken
showcases were fixed.
Thousands of relics were looted from the museum in the
chaos after U.S. troops entered the Iraqi capital
A dozen looters helped themselves in ground floor rooms
at the National Museum of Iraq, where pottery artefacts and
statues were seen broken or overturned, while
administrative offices were wrecked.
The looting and destruction in April triggered deep
criticism of U.S. forces both in Iraq and abroad. Museum
curators and archaeologists world-wide said the United
States should have protected the precious treasures, dating
to the earliest days of settled human history.
The Iraqi authorities were able to recover only 4,000
of the 14,000 treasures thought to have been looted after
the fall of Baghdad. He said that preliminary steps have
been taken to form a 2,000-member force to protect Iraq
archaeological sites from looting.
The museum was opened briefly for public in July last
year, displaying for the first time the royal treasures of
Nimrud since they were uncovered by Iraqi archaeologists
in the late 1980s.
The museum houses a major collection of antiquities,
including a 4,000-year-old silver harp from Ur, amid a
breakdown in civil authority following the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's regime in April last year.
Iraq, among the earliest cradles of civilisation and
home to the remains of such ancient Mesopotamian cities as
Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one of the richest
archaeological heritage in the world.
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