IRAQ: There is serious concern that the Iraq museum's ancient treasures could be stolen by officials, writes Michael Jansen
The resignation of Donny George as head of Iraq's state board of antiquities has alarmed archaeologists and historians round the world. A leading scholar said that there is serious concern that the Iraq museum's ancient treasures could be stolen by officials due to a lack of proper supervision.
In particular, there is currently no control over who enters the vast storerooms where the museum's most precious pieces have been kept over the past three and a half years.
Dr George gained international prominence as the spokesman for the preservation of Iraq's cultural heritage after the museum was looted in April 2003 following the toppling of the Baathist regime by the US and Britain.
His high-profile campaign for the return of more than 15,000 pillaged artifacts led to the recovery of three of the museums most precious exhibits - a sculpted head of a woman, an alabaster vase decorated with scenes portraying religious rituals, and a statue of a youth in copper. Some 10,000 pieces are still missing, many believed to have been sold to collectors by black market dealers.
When he assumed the chairmanship of the antiquities board in late 2003, Dr George expected the museum, a repository of Sumerian and Babylonian artifacts since the 1920s, would be refurbished and reopen within 18 months. But due to the deteriorating security situation in Baghdad, the museum has remained closed.
He recently ordered that the building be sealed off with concrete walls to protect it from insurgent and sectarian attacks as well as external looters.
Dr George, who had worked in the antiquities department for more than 30 years, resigned on August 7th. He told a colleague, "I am married to two wives."
The colleague explained that Dr George had to contend with interference from the ministry of culture, formerly responsible for supervising the board of antiquities, and the recently-appointed minister for tourism and archaeology.
Dr George said the board had, during the past two Shia-led governments, come under the influence of the party of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, now the largest faction in parliament with 30 seats.
A Christian, Dr George revealed that unqualified, political appointees to positions in the antiquities department had adopted an Islamist agenda, focusing on Iraq's 14-century-old Islamic history, at the expense of the country's ancient past as the cradle of civilisation.
In an interview with Art newspaper from Damascus where he took refuge with his family, Dr George stated: "I can no longer work with these people who have come in with the new ministry. They have no knowledge of archaeology, no knowledge of antiquities."
He complained that the appointees "did not like me having any contact with anyone from outside" Iraq and he found it difficult to maintain relations with the representatives of foreign forces in the country, including those occupying key sites such as Babylon which has been seriously degraded by US and Polish troops.
The new head of the state board is Haidar Farhan, a Sadrist who has no expertise in archaeology or ancient history. "There is nothing to recommend him," Dr George asserted.
He said the lack of funding also posed a serious danger to the museum and to the country's thousands of archaeological sites, many of which have been systematically looted since the US-led war.
Although conservation work and excavations have been impossible since 2003, Dr George managed to train a force of more than 1,400 policemen to patrol and protect sites. "From September there is no more money for their salaries. This has to be rectified by the occupying authorities."
Sadrist Liwa Sumaysim, the minister of state for antiquities, accused Dr George of telling "lies" while another Sadrist, speaking without attribution, remarked on Dr George's service under the ousted Baathist regime, an issue raised by some quarters at the time of his selection to head the board of antiquities.
Virtually all Iraqi archaeologists who have worked in the country over the past 25 years were employed in some capacity under Saddam Hussein.
For the moment, Dr George is in Damascus, awaiting a visa for the US where he seeks to plead, once again, for urgent help to rescue Iraq's seriously endangered cultural heritage.