{"id":41236,"date":"2014-02-27T22:26:16","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T05:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/27\/unlooting-the-museum.html"},"modified":"2014-03-03T10:07:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T17:07:49","slug":"unlooting-the-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/27\/unlooting-the-museum.html","title":{"rendered":"Unlooting the Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
A very quiet success story. \u00a0Bravo.<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>John E. Bredehoft<\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Stewart Brand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlooting the Iraq Museum<\/b><\/p>\n

This week US Marines Col. Matthew Bogdanos gave a Long Now talk on his experience in Iraq leading the efforts to recover the priceless artifacts looted from the Iraq National Museum in April 2003.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my summary of the talk:<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s National Museum in Baghdad had been closed to the public by Saddam Hussein for over two decades when his regime fell in April 02003. Iraqis felt no connection to the world renowned cultural treasures inside. Like every other government building, it was trashed and looted.<\/p>\n

Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos, then in Basra leading a counter-terrorism group, volunteered part of his team to attempt recovery of the lost artifacts. He arrived at the museum with 14 people to protect its dozen buildings and 11 acres in a still-active battle zone. Invited by the museum director, they took up residence and analyzed the place as a crime scene.<\/p>\n

Missing were some of civilization\u2019s most historic archeological treasures. From 3200 BC, the Sacred Vase of Warka, the world\u2019s oldest carved stone ritual vessel. From 2600 BC, the solid gold bull\u2019s head from the Golden Harp of Ur. From 2250 BC, the copper Akkadian Bassetki Statue, the earliest known example of lost-wax casting. From 3100 BC, the limestone Mask of Warka, the first naturalistic depiction of a human face. From 800 BC, the Treasure of Nimrud\u2014 a fabulous hoard of hundreds of pieces of exquisite Assyrian gold jewelry and gems. Plus thousands of other artifacts and antiquities, including Uruk inscribed cylinder seals from 2500 BC.<\/p>\n

Bidding on the international antiquities black market went to $25,000 for Uruk cylinder seals, $40 million for the Vase of Warka.<\/p>\n

Since the goal was recovery, not prosecution, Bogdanos instituted a total amnesty for return of stolen artifacts\u2014no questions asked, and also no payment, just a cordial cup of tea for thanks. Having learned from duty in Afghanistan to listen closely to the locals, Bogdanos and his team walked the streets, visited the mosques, played backgammon in the neighborhoods, and followed up on friendly tips (every one of which turned out to be genuine). 3,000 items had been taken from the museum by random looters. Local Iraqis returned 95% of them.<\/p>\n

The prime pieces stolen by professional thieves took longer to track down. Raids on smuggler\u2019s trucks and hiding places turned up more items. The Bassetki Statue was found hidden in a cesspool; the Mask of Warka had been buried in the ground. Some pieces began turning up all over the world and were seized when identified. (Bogdanos noted that Geneva, Switzerland, is where that kind of contraband often rests in warehouses that law enforcement is not allowed to search.)<\/p>\n

It turned out Saddam himself had looted the museum of the Treasure of Nimrud and the gold bull\u2019s head back in 01990. Tips led to a flooded underground vault in the bombed-out Central Bank of Iraq, and the priceless items were discovered.<\/p>\n

Everything found was returned to the Iraq National Museum, where the great antiquities are gradually being restored to public display. Iraq, and the world, is retaking possession of its most ancient heritage.<\/p>\n

Bogdanos quoted Sophocles: \u201cWhoever neglects the arts\u2026 has lost the past and is dead to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

(This talk was neither recorded nor filmed, because material presented in it is part of a still on-going investigation. You can get the full story from Bogdanos\u2019 excellent book, Thieves of Baghdad<\/i>.)\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos: The Unlooting of Civilization\u2019s Treasures in Wartime Iraq – The Long Now<\/a><\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very quiet success story. \u00a0Bravo. (h\/t +John E. Bredehoft) Reshared post from +Stewart Brand Unlooting the Iraq Museum This week US Marines Col. Matthew Bogdanos gave a Long Now talk on his experience in Iraq leading the efforts to recover the priceless artifacts looted from the Iraq National Museum in April 2003.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my … Continue reading “Unlooting the Museum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,66,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-media-art","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":328,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/01\/more_good_news.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":0},"title":"More good news","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-May-03 6:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As folks are beginning to actually investigate on the ground at the Baghdad Museum, the losses are looking to have been not nearly as severe as originally reported. Col. Matthew...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137371,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/22\/couldnt-happen-to-a-nicer-bunch-of-antiquities-smugglers.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":1},"title":"Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of antiquities smugglers","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Oct-18 5:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Hobby Lobby \"Bible Museum\" in Washington, DC, has admitted that at least five of its Dead Sea Scrolls fragments have tested as fake. These are the same folk who had to pay heavy fines for smuggling illegal antiquities into the US from Iraq, so it's not surprising that their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":445,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/14\/loss.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":2},"title":"Loss","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Apr-03 7:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"I was a history major in college. I love the past. I find ancient cultures fascinating. I find artifacts of past civilizations treasures beyond value. I mean, just walk around...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27446,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/18\/the-few-the-proud-the-christian-warriors-out-to-conquer-the-holy-land.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":3},"title":"The few, the proud, the Christian Warriors Out to Conquer the Holy Land","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Apr-12 9:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Really? Someone thinks this is a good idea?The Marine air unit, when formed in WWII, was known as the \"Werewolves.\" In 1958, when they were flying F8 Crusaders, they were redubbed the \"Crusaders.\" Going over to Iraq in 2008, the unit commander at the time took the original name back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/hobby-lobby-to-pay-3m-fine-for-illegal-antiquity-imports.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":4},"title":"Hobby Lobby to pay $3M fine for illegal antiquity imports","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Jul-17 8:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"The company spokesfolk did a little herp-derp, how could we possibly know that the antiquities field is full of dodgy people who steal things from archaeological sites, that we should actual verify the story they told us, and that wiring our money to multiple accounts and receiving the goods in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10174,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/17\/no_way_out.html","url_meta":{"origin":41236,"position":5},"title":"No way out?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Aug-06 5:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Iraq our national Kobayashi Maru, a no-win scenario? If we're Left we talk about lies, false premises, politicization and casualties. If we're Right we try to boil it down...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41300,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41236\/revisions\/41300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}