[MSN] International archaeologists' plea to Iraqi government

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

International archaeologists' plea to Iraqi government

By Martin Bailey | Posted 25 October 2006

A group of leading international archaeologists has written to the Iraqi authorities, expressing strong concern over suggestions that the collection of Baghdad’s National Museum might be broken up. The letter is addressed to president Jalal Talabani and top politicians.

The initiative follows reports in Baghdad that the government is considering the possibility of “regionalising” the National Museum’s holding. In particular, there is some pressure to send antiquities excavated in the south to Basra or one of the main sites, such as Nasariyah.

In their letter, the European and American archaeologists say, “most immediately we ask that the holdings of the Iraq National Museum be kept safeguarded and intact as one collection rather than being subdivided.” Its 15 distinguished signatories include Professor McGuire Gibson (American Academic Research Institute in Iraq), Dr Lamia Algailani (University College, London), Dr Michael Müller-Karpe (Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Mainz) and Professor Jane Waldbaum (President of the Archaeological Institute of America). It is noticeable that curators from a number of major museums with Mesopotamian collections are not signatories.

In practice, any immediate movement of archaeological finds would be extremely difficult. Staff at the National Museum have found it impossible to even complete an inventory of the contents of the storerooms since the looting of April 2003. The Baghdad museum remains closed and was recently physically sealed with strong concrete barriers. Professor Gibson told The Art Newspaper that he still fears the museum collection “could be split up, perhaps into three geographical areas”.

The signatories also express concern about archaeological sites, asking that “the Antiquities Guards be kept as a force, meaning that they continue to be paid and equipped and their numbers increased.” Looting, which increased after the fall of Saddam Hussein, remains a major threat.

Finally, the letter asks that “cultural heritage either be independent or that it be administered by the Ministry of Culture” and “implemented by a professional, unified State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.” It goes further, suggesting that the Antiquities board should be turned into a new ministry or at least connected to the cabinet general secretariat. The letter concludes that “only a strong, national, non-political State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, backed fully by the force of the state, can preserve the heritage that is left.”

Traditionally, the Antiquities board came under the Ministry of Culture, but it was recently switched to the Ministry of Tourism (although conventional tourism is at present non-existent, the ministry also covers religious pilgrimages). The new Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is headed by Liwa Sumaysin, and the letter is pointedly not addressed to him, but his counterpart at the Ministry of Culture, Dr Assad Al-Hashimi.

Professor Jane Waldbaum, a signatory and the president of the Archaeological Institute of America, believes it important that the international community should speak out. “What we don’t want to see is Iraq going the way of the Taliban, in terms of the destruction of its archaeology,” she told us. The letter echoes concerns expressed by Dr Donny George, the former head of the Antiquities board, who, as The Art Newspaper revealed, suddenly resigned in July and fled to Damascus (September 2006, p1). Dr George expressed concern about the lack of financial resources to pay guards at archaeological sites and political interference in the Antiquities board from militant Shi’ites. 

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/