"Stuff Happens" - The Looting Of The Iraqi Museum - Video - review

This follows on from a recent post I wrote about what might eventually be the renaissance of the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, following the ransacking and looting of the place back in 2003, at the start of the current conflict.

Having received a comment on that post from Stuart Draper, who directed the documentary, I headed over to this linked page at ScribeMedia, to watch a brief, but harrowing 9-minute film directed by Stuart, in which the former Director of the museum Dr. Donny George, recounts some of the events which led to thousands of artefacts in the museum being either looted or destroyed, and it soon becomes apparent why he decided to leave his post in 2006, and is at the moment unwilling, and maybe unable to resume his duties there.

The film itself mostly features an interview with Dr. Donny George, interspersed with various images of smashed artefacts within the museum, a look at some of what has been taken, as well as a rather sickening clip of Donald Rumsfeld cracking what he thinks of as jokes, but are in fact a series of glib statements which appear to accurately reflect the US administration's callous disregard for what has been described as the worst looting event in the Middle East since the ransacking of Constantinople.

The main impression that comes across is the shock and anguish on the face of Dr. George, who tells us that there are sights of destruction within the museum which he feels it better for us not to see, and it's also clear that the death threats made against members of his own family have also played their part in his decision to quit Baghdad for the US; moreover, I'd be very surprised if he did return to the museum, as there's probably only so much distress one person can take, but at some point there will be a need for someone with his dedication and ability to organise the museum's revival and help it back to its feet again.

Dr. George relates how the US forces, before the conflict got fully under way, were given co-ordinates of archaeological and historical sites, including the museum in Baghdad that needed protecting - but absolutely no preventative action appears to have been initiated. There were three types of intruders to the museum, two of which seemed to know exactly what they were looking for, almost as if they were looting to order - including over 5,000 of the small and irreplaceable cylinder seals, whist other parts of the basement were left completely untouched.

Although there are hopes that with the gradual return of some of the missing artifacts, as well as repairs that can be done here and there, the museum will at some point re-open its doors to the public, it will nevertheless still be a museum with only about half its original complement of material, unless there is a dramatic recovery of its stolen stock - but it's more than likely that most of the best stuff will by now be in the hands of private collectors, and it may well be a very long time, if ever, before much of the material is once again seen in public.

A very well made video, which does well to get its point across in just a few minutes - hopefully there will be similar videos made in the future, bringing us better news of recovery and repair, although of course nothing much will change until the long-term future of Iraq itself is much more stable and secure.

see also : Iraq Museum International

The Iraq War and Archaeology

BBCNews : In Pictures : Baghdad Museum Looted

image : Assyrian angel