"It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action," said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. "They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes."
"I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was," Gibson said. He added that if a good police team was put together, "I think it could be cracked in no time."
Jim Clancy: Museum 'shattered' by looters (CNN, 16 April 2003)They now believe, because of some of the evidence that they have found, that some of the items were taken [by art and cultural] professionals. Among other things they found were glass cutters that they said are not sold in Iraq. They are looking into that.
Inquiry demanded over US failure to stop library looting (Independent.co.uk, 16 April 2003) Baghdad museum's greatest treasures 'stolen to order' (Independent.co.uk, 16 April 2003) Robert Fisk: Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad (Independent.co.uk, 15 April 2003) Robert Fisk: Americans defend two untouchable ministries from the hordes of looters (Independent.co.uk, 14 April 2003) Pentagon Was Told Of Risk to Museums: U.S. Urged to Save Iraq's Historic Artifacts (Washington Post, 14 April 2003)"I thought I was given assurances that sites and museums would be protected," Gibson [Iraq specialist at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute] said. Instead, even with U.S. forces firmly in control of Baghdad last week, looters breached the museum, trashed its galleries, burned its records, invaded its vaults and smashed or carried off thousands of artifacts dating from the founding of ancient Sumer around 3,500 B.C. to the end of Islam's Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 A.D.
Robert Fisk: A city in flames. A nation in chaos (Independent.co.uk, 12 April 2003) US accused of plans to loot Iraqi antiques (Sunday Herald, 6 April 2003)FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level meeting with the US administration.
It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US defence and state department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its assistance in preserving the country's invaluable archaeological collections.
The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who favour a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and export of antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist' and has said he would support a post-war government that would make it easier to have antiquities dispersed to the US.
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Last modified: Fri Jun 20 13:55:11 CDT 2003