Punishing the French

Undertoad · 05-07-2003, 11:15 AM

The NYT has more on the museum non-looting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/in...al/06MUSE.html

"Most Iraqi Treasures Are Said to Be Kept Safe"

A top British Museum official said yesterday that his Iraqi counterparts told him they had largely emptied display cases at the National Museum in Baghdad months before the start of the Iraq war, storing many of the museum's most precious artifacts in secure "repositories."

The official, John E. Curtis, curator of the Near East Collection at the British Museum, who recently visited Iraq, said Baghdad museum officials had taken the action on the orders of Iraqi government authorities. When looting started, most of the treasures apparently remaining in display halls were those too large or bulky to have been moved for protection, Mr. Curtis said.

They further clarify: 25 items are felt to be missing. Twenty-five.

They further clarify: they did the same kind of "safekeeping" operations in 1991. The Iraqi museum curators are no dummies: knowing that they might be bombed, they had plenty of time to take all the good stuff and put it where it would not be damaged.

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05-07-2003, 11:15 AM	#28
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	The NYT has more on the museum non-looting: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/in...al/06MUSE.html "Most Iraqi Treasures Are Said to Be Kept Safe" A top British Museum official said yesterday that his Iraqi counterparts told him they had largely emptied display cases at the National Museum in Baghdad months before the start of the Iraq war, storing many of the museum's most precious artifacts in secure "repositories." The official, John E. Curtis, curator of the Near East Collection at the British Museum, who recently visited Iraq, said Baghdad museum officials had taken the action on the orders of Iraqi government authorities. When looting started, most of the treasures apparently remaining in display halls were those too large or bulky to have been moved for protection, Mr. Curtis said. They further clarify: 25 items are felt to be missing. Twenty-five. They further clarify: they did the same kind of "safekeeping" operations in 1991. The Iraqi museum curators are no dummies: knowing that they might be bombed, they had plenty of time to take all the good stuff and put it where it would not be damaged.

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