Future of Iraq's looted past looking brighter

Nov. 28, 07
by Bryan Pearson

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Piece by priceless piece, artefact by ancient artefact, Iraq is slowly recovering its Mesopotamian treasures looted by bandits, militiamen and soldiers after Saddam Hussein was toppled.
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Lured by offers of rewards, Iraqis are increasingly handing in an assortment of cups, vases, statuettes, daggers, plates and coins dating back to the very cradle of civilisation, a government official said.

"We had 594 pieces returned this week alone," Abdul Zahra al-Talaqani, media director in the ministry of culture, tourism and antiquities, told AFP in an interview in his office in Baghdad's tightly-protected Green Zone.

"Each day we get more and more."

The antiques, unless clearly identifiable as stolen museum pieces -- which are stamped --, are sent to a laboratory for testing. "We get many fakes," said Talaqani.

He said that in all, at least 32,000 items of antiquity are known to have been pillaged from the National Museum in Baghdad and the country's 12,000 archaeological locations since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The actual number is believed to be far higher though. Many items were not recorded and some are still disappearing from the thousands of archaeological sites in Iraq, some dating back up to 10,000 years.

Wispy-bearded Talaqani bitterly blamed the US military as being responsible for a large share of the looting by failing to protect the valuable items.

"There are two seas in Iraq -- a sea of oil and a sea of antiquities. The multinational forces have done everything to protect the sea of oil but they have done very little to protect the other sea. We are not accusing them of stealing the antiquities, but they have not protected them."

Among the more important pieces known to be missing are a Sumerian period female head from Uruk -- modern Warka -- and large numbers of plates, daggers, cups and statues -- of both human and animals -- from the Babylonian and Assyrian periods.

Also missing are a collection of rare riverain plates used during devotional ceremonies -- "one of our treasures from 5,000 years ago," said Talaqani.

Since 2005, when the ministry was set up, a worldwide search has been underway to recover the looted pieces.

The process has been speeded up since the appointment of an acting minister of tourism and antiquities, Mohammed Abbas al-Oreibi, in September.

The post had been vacant since April, when the political wing of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- which controls the ministry -- quit Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet.

Oreibi has made the recovery of antiquities his priority and has instituted a reward system -- people are paid from 10,000 dinar (eight dollars) to a handsome five million dinar (about 4,000 dollars) for turning in antiquities.

The scheme is having a significant impact, said Talaqani, who is in his fifties.

"People are turning up in numbers for the rewards. The amount we pay depends on the value of the object. For low-value items we pay, 10,000 dinars just to encourage people," he said.

A five million dinar reward was paid out a few weeks ago to a man who handed in a gold coin from the Ommayad era -- one of the first Islamic coins ever minted.

Special police task forces have also been formed to patrol routes through Iraq's deserts to neighbouring countries and are having success in intercepting smugglers, said Talaqani.

"After the collapse of Iraq, gangs were formed specialising in the stealing of antiques. They do not know the value of these pieces and sell them for just a few dollars across the border," he said.

"They are greedy and spend the money on fulfilling their desires."

On November 14, a gang was caught heading through southwestern Muthanna province towards Saudi Arabia with a large number of items, some of which had already been damaged and some of which were found to be fakes.

Acting minister Oreibi has been in touch with the authorities in Syria, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Jordan to help him find objects being sold on the black market, and has put Iraqi embassies across the world on the alert.

"We have already identified about 4,000 objects in neighbouring countries and are now trying to get them back," said Talaqani. "We are in negotiation with the governments."

While he could not give an overall number of items already recovered, as many of those being handed in still have to be authenticated, the Iraq National Museum itself had so far recovered 3,938 of its 15,000 or so stolen items, he said.

Former director of the museum, Donny George, now living in exile in New York, said the museum had to be closed because the sectarian violence ravaging Baghdad made it too risky for staff to go to work.

Efforts to reopen the museum have stuttered and no date has yet been set.

George told AFP in a recent interview that his search for stolen Iraqi antiquities continues and that he is often called upon for his expertise to identify pieces.

For Talaqani, the future of Iraq's past is looking brighter. Violence levels are down across the country allowing archaeologists to resume digs on historical sites.

"We have teams of archaeologists in 11 places who are daily making new discoveries of rare items. Iraq has a sea of antiquities and we've only discovered part of that sea."