Iraqi National Museum reopens after 12 years, thousands of artifacts still missing.

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

Iraqi National Museum reopens after 12 years, thousands of artifacts still missing.

Author: Staff
Source: The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Publication Date: 03/07/2015 10:37
Link: Iraqi National Museum reopens after 12 years, thousands of artifacts still missing.

Stephan: This is the first good news I have seen out of Iraq in some time. Opening the National Museum after what happened in Mosul, shows that enough civic self-esteem exists to do this. And there is a nuance, the Baghdad museum was badly looted and destroyed because Paul Bremer didn't think to protect it, in his epochally incompetent management when America occupied Iraq. By extension the government is saying, "and we will do this with Mosul as well." Neither museum will be what it once was but, on balance, I think we ought to see this report as good news.

A man looks at artefacts displayed inside the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad February 28, 2015.
Credit: REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

Iraq’s National Museum reopened in the Iraqi capital Saturday after 12 years of efforts to restore nearly 15,000 artifacts stolen during the United State’s occupation in the country, AFP reported.

According to the report, the museum was reopened earlier than planned in response to the destruction and looting of artifacts by Islamic State in Mosul last month.

“The events in Mosul led us to speed up our work and we wanted to open it [the museum] today [Saturday] as a response to what the gangs of IS did,” Qais Hussein Rashid, the deputy tourism and antiquities minister, told AFP.

“This is a very happy day,” which will help heal the wounds of the destruction of artifacts in Mosul, Rashid said in the report.

“For the first time there’s a whole generation of Iraqis who never knew what the national museum was. […]

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