Feature
May 1, 2009The Looting of Mesopotamia: Policy to Prevent Another Tragedy
In the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi people knew that when it happened key cultural and archeological sites would be looted. At some sites, museum employees hid artifacts in storage containers and protected them with weapons. But the majority of artifacts, including many in the National Museum, were left vulnerable. As a result 15,000 artifacts were stolen in 2003, representing some of the world's oldest artworks and irreparably damaging Iraq's culture and tourism industry.
Lawrence Rothfield, co-founder of the University's Cultural Policy Center, told this story during a recent presentation at the Harris School. He has embarked on a multiphase project on the protection of cultural heritage during wartime, focused on identifying the causes of failures in protecting antiquities during the Iraqi invasion and offering policy solutions to prevent similar looting and illicit selling of antiquities. Last year, he published those policy prescriptions in Antiquities Under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection after the Iraq War.
The 15,000 artifacts stolen include many cylinder seals, vases, status, steles, and friezes. "There were some major loses," said Rothfield. "Some pieces that were too big to move were chiseled off. One of the Assyrian lions dating back to 1800 B.C. had its head lopped off." The Warka Vase was also taken; it dates back to 3300-3200 B.C. and is the earliest-known narrative art.
The looters were not ignorant of the value of these goods, and some had an insider's knowledge of the museum, Rothfield explained. In the aftermath of the invasion, Iraqis were not abashed in their actions. "Far from being afraid of getting in trouble for what they were doing, looters would often come up to photographers offering to sell what they had found," he said. Looting became a highly organized industry that tapped into to the well-established market for antiquities around the world.
Local museum officials had warned the Pentagon before the invasion that the National Museum was at risk for vandalism. But U.S. troops on the ground were not well-coordinated in assigning responsibility for protection of the museum and other sites. Abetting that confusion, international media repeatedly played footage of the looting and over-estimated the number of pieces stolen.
"Trying to explain why the museum was not protected was a difficult task for [Secretary] Rumsfeld and General Myers," said Rothfield. He said that culture should have been on the map for the U.S. forces, but it was given such a low priority that the State Department did not even know who served as the head of the Iraqi Ministry of Culture. "Not a single cultural organization was present in U.S. reconstruction efforts," he said, adding that UNESCO and cultural non-governmental organizations were shut out of discussions.
Making a suggestion for future situations, Rothfield added, "U.S. occupying forces could've worked with the board of antiquities and the people it had trained. Iraq has one of the longest histories of people who have been trained in research and site protections in the Middle East."
One victory for the country's cultural heritage is that through an amnesty program "many of these artifacts were recovered from other countries-Jordan, Iran, U.S. . . . even Peru." With 8,000 artifacts still missing-many presumably throughout the Gulf states-there are questions of the future of the museum, which remains closed, and the future for Iraqi artifacts.
By Elizabeth Vivirito
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Eleanor Cartelli
Associate Director of Publications
Phone: 773-834-4752
Email: cartelli@uchicago.edu
