Iraq goldsmiths pay heavy price

Mohammed Kamel weighed jewelry in his father's Baghdad shop to calculate the price. The war and a flood of imports have made things difficult for jewelers. (SAAD KHALAF/LOS ANGELES TIMES)

BAGHDAD - In a store wedged between vendors hawking vegetables and inexpensive clothing, Adnan Walid lovingly shapes sheets of gold into delicate leaves and flowers to make a necklace.

Walid has lost count of the number of friends who have fled the violence of recent years. His own shop was reduced to a charred shell two years ago when a car bomb exploded across the street. He keeps two pistols under his counter, just in case.

Still, Walid, a round-faced man with a cheery smile, welcomes each customer who arrives searching for the right piece of gold jewelry. "Iraqis have loved gold since ancient history," he said. "Even when there are explosions, people buy gold."

Although sales remain strong, goldsmithing is a disappearing art in Iraq, a land where it has been practiced for nearly 5,000 years. Many of the most celebrated goldsmiths have joined the exodus of doctors, teachers, and other professionals who are leaving the country, draining it of valuable knowledge.

The remaining jewelers are struggling to compete against a flood of imports while contending with daily power outages, gas shortages, and antiquated equipment, all of which slow production. Most of the glittering trinkets in shop windows are from the United Arab Emirates, where they are produced at large factories.

Walid himself imports jewelry by the kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). It's easier and less expensive than trying to fill the shop with his own handiwork, he said. Besides, customers like the delicate filigree work typical of the Indian artisans who work in the Emirates.

The love affair with gold is as old as civilization itself in the fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Although gold is not mined in Iraq, the ancient Sumerians traded wheat and barley for the shiny metal, which they hammered into necklaces, cups, and helmets of exquisite workmanship.

Today, even the poorest Iraqis usually own a few pieces of gold jewelry. Amulets and rings are a means to display a family's wealth in good times and to protect them against the bad, when the pieces can be sold to pay a debt or finance the purchase of a home.

The price of gold jewelry, which is sold by weight, has nearly doubled in the past two years, from about $14 per gram to just over $27, including workmanship.

But Fowzi Taihi, who has had a shop near the front of the shrine for 30 years, said he used to make as much as $4,000 a day.

"Now, I barely earn enough to keep myself alive," he said.

Taihi worries constantly about safety. Kidnappers target goldsmiths for ransom.