looting iraq: past and present. museum director inspects the damage april 12, 2003

Looting Iraq:Past and Present

Museum Director inspects the damage April 12, 2003

Museum worker, April 12, 2003

The British Museum

Baked clay foundation cone with cuneiform writing, end of the 3rd

millennium B.C.

Musée du Louvre

Clay proto-cuneiform tablet with early pictographic writing, end of the 4th millennium B.C.

Various examples of cuneiform writing from Iraq Museum collection

of over 7,000 pieces

Uruk III (c. 3200-3000 BC)

Uruk III (c. 3200-3000 BC) ?

Examples of the over 4,000

Cylindrical seals stolen from Iraq

National Museum

Stone stamp seals, Jamdat Naser period, about 3000 B.C.

Iraq Museum

Card Catalogue, Iraq National Museum

Ambassador

L. Paul Bremer, U.S. Civil

Administrator In Iraq

U.S Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Copper head of Goddess of Victory (stolen)(stolen)

Ivory plaque from Nimrud,

beginning of the 1st millennium

B.C. (IM 60555)

Iraq Museum

Sumerian Plate inlaid with shell (stolen)(stolen)

Stone figurines from Tell es-Sawwan, beginning of the 6th millennium B.C.

Iraq Museum

Stone Sumerian statue, about 2400 B.C. (IM 55204)

Iraq Museum

White marble head of Eros-Cherub, from Hatra (stolen)(stolen)

Sumerian alabaster

statue from Ur, about 2400 B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Stone statue from Hatra, 2nd century A.D. (IM 58084),

Iraq Museum

An Ivory Plaque of a lion killing a Nubian, Assyrian from Nimrud, 1x10.5cm base, 9.8 high (stolen)(stolen)

Terra cotta Sumerian figure

from Tello, about 2000 B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Terra cotta relief: cult scene

from Khafaji, about 1800 B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Gray Diorite Statue of Entemena, Sumerian 15x76cm, weighs 150 kg (stolen)(stolen)

Bronze foundation figurine, end of the 3rd millennium B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Panel carved in relief : Assyrian warriors from

Khorsabad, end of the 8th B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Gray Islamic tombstone (stolen)(stolen)

Islamic glasses: cup (IM 11204) and bottle (IM 11223), 13th and 9-10th centuries

A.D.

Iraq Museum

Small alabaster vessels, Tell es-Sawwan, 6th millennium B.C. -- Iraq Museum

Gray stone head of female deity, from Hatra (stolen)(stolen)

Pottery jar decorated "scarlet

ware" from Khafaji, beginning

of the 3rd millennium B.C.,

Iraq Museum

Jewelry board, Royal Cemetery of Ur, about

2500 B.C.

Iraq Museum

Stone Assyrian relief fragment from Nineveh, about 700 B.C. (stolen)(stolen)

Islamic manuscript page

in Arabic

Iraq Museum

Islamic carved brick architectural decoration (IM A9874) Iraq Museum/Tabbaa

White marble head of Apollo, from Hatra (stolen)(stolen)

Islamic wooden panel

Iraq Museum

Islamic coins

Iraq Museum

A sumerian white marble mask of female deity, life-size, 21.5cm (stolen)(stolen)

First Floor of Iraq National

Library

Second Floor of Iraq National Library

Debris in back of Iraq National

Library

Remains of bookshelves from Iraq National Library

Looted archeological site, Ishin Bahryat, Photo by Micah Garen

Italian Police patrol Umma, Iraq. Photo by Micah Garen

Looters running from helicopter at Isin, Jan. 2004

CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY IN THE EVENT OF

ARMED CONFLICT. Done at the Hague, on 14 May 1954

George W. Bush, President of the United States