[CPProt.net] The Last Word: Donny George; A Real-Life Treasure Hunt

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The Last Word: Donny George 
A Real-Life Treasure Hunt

Newsweek International


March 21 issue - It's been two years since the start of the Iraq war, and
with increasing news coverage of insurgents, torture scandals and successful
elections, one issue has taken a back seat: the looting of the Iraq museum
in Baghdad. Not so for Donny George, the museum's director, whose
responsibility it is to try to locate and retrieve the priceless antiquities
stolen in the mayhem that followed the liberation of Baghdad, as well as
protect those items that were left behind. Currently also working with the
World Monuments Fund, UNESCO and the Getty Center to train Iraqi employees
in conservation and restoration, George took time out to speak with
NEWSWEEK's Cathleen McGuigan about his efforts. Excerpts:

MCGUIGAN: Even when the looting began in 2003, there was great disagreement
over the number of objects taken from the Iraqi National Museum. 
GEORGE: The number given at that time was 170,000 objects. That was a
mistake by journalists. We have lost 15,000 objects, but I believe the
number will go up, as we have not finished the assessment of the damages
yet. From those, we've retrieved 3,323 items with the Iraqi museum numbers
on them-which mean they were actually stolen. We also have retrieved 1,450
items that came from the archeological sites. They have come to us through
the Iraqi police, Iraqi customs, the multinational forces that are working
on these things and the Iraqi people. 

We also have some good number of items seized in neighboring countries: 38
pieces in Kuwait, 18 in Saudi Arabia, 1,250 in Jordan, 360 in Syria. We have
300 in Italy and over 600 in the United States. They have surfaced in those
countries and been seized by the authorities there.

But we don't know what is there in Turkey or Iran. We are sure that Iraqi
items are smuggled through these countries.

You've said that you don't actually want stolen items returned from
countries like Italy or the United States. You want them to stay there for
safekeeping? 
Yes. Our museum is very close to Haifa Street, where we have incidents
almost daily. We believe this is not the right time now to have them back.
Since we know all about them and are promised them back whenever we want
them, it is better to keep them in these countries. 

What are some of the major pieces that have been returned? 
There's the Warka vase, a real Sumerian masterpiece. Our young conservators
are with Italian specialists working on the piece in Baghdad. We have the
famous Basitke statue, a life-size statue of a young man. It was
[originally] found in a village in the northern part of Iraq with this name,
that's why we call it that. It's an Acadian piece that goes back to 2300
B.C. It was a very heavy piece, made of bronze. There is also the stone
statue of King Schalmanezer, from the eighth century B.C. This piece has a
very nice story. It was taken by two young men during the looting-they took
nine very nice pieces to their houses. They came to us after the looting and
they said, "Don't ask for our names or addresses. We were in the museum at
the time of the looting. We felt very sorry because we could not stop
anything." Then they decided they would take things and bring them back when
it was safe. And they did it. As soon as we had the American soldiers
protecting the museum, they brought back the nine pieces. 

You still don't know when the museum will reopen.
Yes, mainly because of the security situation. We believe 100 percent that
if we open now we will be a target.

Apparently looting at archeological sites is still rampant. How many such
sites are there in Iraq? 
Over 11,000 registered archeological sites. 

Is there any estimate on how many objects have been taken from the sites? 
No, we don't know what's been taken, because the objects aren't registered,
unless they surface. We know, for example, that there are thousands of clay
tablets that have appeared in the United States, and Europe and Japan-they
all come from these archeological sites. 

Is there no way to protect these sites?
Now that we can have some police in these places, and they can have cars,
weapons and communication systems, much of the situation is becoming better.
Recently, they caught four people red-handed, with antiquities in their
hands, and took them to jail.

What can the international community do to help your efforts? Tighten up
borders? 
This is very important. The Jordanians are doing an excellent job. Even the
Saudis are doing fine. [Everyone] except for Iran and Turkey. They are not
even responding to Interpol announcements or appeals to protect their
borders from smuggling Iraqi antiquities. I was at a meeting of Interpol in
Amman some months ago, and the representatives of Iran and Turkey never
came. 

C 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7169977/site/newsweek/