Museum looted during fall of Baghdad opens

Restoration a milestone, Maliki says

An Iraqi soldier guarded the gate at the newly reopened Iraq National Museum yesterday in Baghdad. (Wathiq Khuzaie/ Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - Iraq's restored National Museum reopened yesterday with a red-carpet gala in the heart of Baghdad, nearly six years after looters carried away priceless antiquities as US troops largely stood by during the chaos as the city fell to American forces.

The ransacking of the museum became a symbol for critics of Washington's post-invasion strategy and its inability to maintain order as Saddam Hussein's police and military unraveled. But Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, chose to look ahead. He called the reopening another milestone in Baghdad's slow return to stability after years of bloodshed.

"It was a dark age that Iraq passed through," the prime minister said at a dedication ceremony after walking down a red carpet into the museum. "This spot of civilization has had its share of destruction."

The museum - which holds artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods - will be open to the public starting today but only for organized tours at first, officials said.

"We have ended the black wind [of violence] and have started the reconstruction process," Maliki told hundreds of officials and guardians of Iraq's rich cultural heritage.

Once the home of one of the world's leading collections of artifacts, the museum fell victim to bands of armed thieves who rampaged through the capital after the Americans captured Baghdad in April 2003. It was among many institutions looted across Iraq, including universities, hospitals and cultural offices. But the richness of the museum's collection - and its importance as the caretaker of Iraq's historical identity - led to an outcry around the world.

US troops, the sole power in the city at the time, were intensely criticized for not protecting the treasures at the museum and other cultural institutions like the national library and the Saddam Art Center, a museum of modern Iraqi art. When asked at the time why US troops did not actively seek to stop the lawlessness, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld famously said: "Stuff happens . . . and it's untidy and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things."

Others claimed the US troops did not have a mandate to act from Washington. About 15,000 artifacts were stolen from the museum, and the lead US investigator said last year that trafficking in those items helped finance Al Qaeda in Iraq as well as Shi'ite militias.

Eventually, about 8,500 items were recovered in an international effort that included culture ministries across the region, Interpol, museum curators and auction houses. Jordan, Syria and Egypt were among countries which returned stolen objects to Baghdad, the scientific and literary hub of the Arab world in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Of the roughly 7,000 pieces still missing, about 40 to 50 are considered to be of great historical importance, according to the UN cultural body UNESCO. It could have been worse. Iraqi officials closed the museum several weeks before the US-led invasion and hid some particularly important artifacts at secret locations to prevent their theft.

The most valuable and unique pieces belonging to the collection, including two small winged bulls and statues from the Assyrian and Babylonian periods more than 2,000 years ago, were on display yesterday. Others remained locked away.

Abdul-Zahra al-Talqani, the media director of Iraq's office of tourism and archaeology affairs, said it was more a matter of space than security because only eight of 23 halls have been renovated.

More artifacts will be put on display as other halls are opened, he said, adding that museum officials were waiting for more government funding. Initially only organized tours for students and other groups will be allowed to enter but the doors will eventually open to individual visitors.

Talqani said he was confident in the security measures taken to protect the museum, although he declined to be more specific.

"We expect no security problems and hope everything will run smoothly," he said.

Assyrian wall panels depicting human-headed winged bulls connected two halls. Other halls contained Islamic mosaics, a marble sun dial and glass cases displaying silver jewelry and daggers. One was devoted to looted antiquities that had been recovered, including vases and pottery jars, some broken, as well as statues of small animals, necklaces, and cylinders.