“We will find you, and we will recover this property”
Categories: In the News , History , Local Interest , Nonfiction , Arts & Crafts
After the April 2003 fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, the world was horrified to learn that the Iraq Museum had been looted. The museum housed an enormous collection of Mesopotamian artifacts, and therefore the most ancient creations of human civilization. I remember a friend crying over the presumed loss of the wide-eyed worshipper (votive) figures , the Golden Lyre of Ur, and the pair of exquisite Ram in the Thicket statues, fabricated of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, copper, shell, and red limestone.
These are among the oldest Mesopotamian treasures, the 5,000-year-old legacy of the Sumerians, who gave us writing. Among the writings feared missing were the Code of Hammurabi, the best preserved among early bodies of law, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first surviving works of literature and still a great read.
A News Hour interview in July with reserves Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who had been charged with recovering the treasures, seemed to offer some hope, simply because Bogdanos made such a powerful impression. An assistant district attorney with a master’s degree in Classics, he himself seemed to exemplify civilization through a remarkable combination of idealism and resolution. Toward the end of the interview, Bogdanos was asked about his prospects for success. He replied with an almost laconic serenity:
“I'm a Marine. I expect to recover these items, no matter how long it takes…. To those who have taken the items, I urge them to listen to their conscience and their sense of duty in returning those items. And to those who need to be guided by emotions other than those, my message is simple: We will find you, no matter how long it takes and no matter where you are, we will find you, and we will recover this property.”
Bogdanos, with William Patrick, tells the story of his quest in Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures. His team and cooperating organizations recovered more than 5,000 of the 15,000 (by some counts) artifacts through seizure, negotiation, and surrender with amnesty. The most important recovered and still-missing items in 2005 were reviewed in a National Public Radio interview with Bogdanos and a 2005 Newsweek discussion with former Iraq Museum Director Donny George.
But for the most up-to-date information, attend Colonel Bogdanos’s lecture at the Cincinnati Art Museum at 7 p.m. on January 24. Reservations are required – call (513) 721-ARTS. The fee is $5.00 for Library cardholders.
As for the most famous treasures feared lost or destroyed, many were actually in other museums, in this case an advantage of the highly controversial appropriation of artifacts by foreign archaeologists and museums (just ask a Greek about the Elgin Marbles). The Code of Hammurabi is kept at the Louvre. The Gilgamesh tablets and one Ram in the Thicket statue reside at the British Museum, another ram at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
The Golden Lyre of Ur, however, was in Baghdad. It was damaged, and the display copy of its solid gold bull’s head was stolen. The original head had been stored at the Baghdad Central Bank, along with other extremely valuable antiquities, such as the Gold of Nimrud, a collection comparable to the finds in Tutankhamen’s tomb.
Another 2005 book about the Iraq Museum reviews the history of the museum and its contents, rather than the looting, despite its title: The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia edited by Milbry Polk and Angela M. H. Schuster.
Here are other recent books about antiquities theft and appropriation:
The Great American Plunder of Persia's Antiquities, 1925-1941 by Mohammad Gholi Majd
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities – From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums by Peter Watson
The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt by Brian M. Fagan
