I've been quite perturbed about the Iraqi museum thing since I first read of it. But it wasn't until today that I had a really personal context in which to blog about it.
I went to the British Museum this afternoon, and I was looking at all kinds of wonderful things (and some freaky ones, too - unwrapped mummies give me the creeps). They had a beautiful gold helmet from Ancient Mesopotamia. It was over 4,000 years old, according to the label. But wait, the fine print read: Copy. Original in The Iraq Museum, Baghdad.
Ouch.
It really brought home the great cultural, artistic and anthropological losses that the world suffered when Baghdad's museum and library were ransacked. And I think it's both America's fault and an illustration of how our priorities in the war were misguided.
The military said that they just didn't have the resources to defend these locations from looters. I'm sorry, but I think that if you're destroying a political regime and not fighting a war against a country's populace, then part of your duty is to maintain their cultural history - and preventing the looting of museums is an essential part of that. All the museums of Europe made it through the world wars relatively unscathed. The Hermitage survived the USSR's dissolution just fine, aside from some budgetary issues, I assume. But from what I have heard, there's not anything left in Baghdad's museum or state library, which had been two of the richest resources of information, art and artifacts about one of the most ancient developed civilazations on our planet.
I shed a tear today for that loss, and for our contribution to allowing that loss to occur.
(And the title of the entry? It's a Gershwin reference - A Foggy Day.)
Posted by Jon at April 23, 2003 08:05 PM | TrackBackI agree that the looting and ransacking of the museam and library is a horrible thing. But who was it exactly who was doing the looting and ransacking of their cultural legacy? It was the Iraqis themselves. Perhaps they do not deserve or even want a cultural legacy.
The only consolation is that the only thing the average person could do with a 4000 year old artifact is turn around and sell it on the black market. This means that there's a fair chance that any given piece will turn up again. I truely doubt even an angry zealot would destroy a piece of Arab history just to be destructive.
Posted by: Jere at April 24, 2003 09:41 AMit was a shame, but on a personal level, I wasn't planning a trip to the Iraqi museum anytime soon
Posted by: IA at April 24, 2003 10:02 AMMishka rules !
Posted by: Mishka at September 23, 2003 11:58 AMBoris rules !
Posted by: Boris at October 1, 2003 02:50 PM