Iraq's National Museum director goes to work in empty building

[kayell]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031019/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_museum_031019193527

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s National Museum Director Donny George was upbeat on his first day on the job, even though there's a gaping hole in his office door, some 10,000 artefacts are still missing and the collections are closed.


"The renovation of the museum is due to be completed in six months, but there is still no date for its reopening. For now, the museum is empty and the artefacts are kept in secret, safe places," he said.


The large hole in George's office door bears witness to the days of looting that followed the April 9 ouster of president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) by a large-scale US-led military offensive.


But the archaeologist was smiling when he went to work on Saturday in the plundered museum that lost in the looting a total of 14,000 invaluable pieces, many dating back thousands of years.


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Don't I remember some stories from our "librul media" that said that almost all the artifacts were not really missing, but stored by employees??? Did they LIE to us? *gasp*

[NNN0LHI]

1. No, no, no. The NYT told me only 29 artifacts were missing

Damn liberal media.

Don

http://www.iht.com/articles/94926.html

Iraq's looted art: The list shortens
Alan Riding/NYT NYT

BAGHDAD Even though many irreplaceable antiquities were looted from the National Museum during the chaotic fall of Baghdad, museum officials and U.S. investigators now say the losses seem to be less severe than originally thought.

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said he had been given a list by museum officials of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, four ivory objects from the eighth century B.C. have been traced.

"Twenty-five pieces is not the same as 170,000," said Bogdanos, who in civilian life is an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

There is no doubt that major treasures have been stolen. These include a lyre from the Sumerian city of Ur, bearing the gold-encased head of a bull, dated 2400 B.C.; a cast copper mask of an Akkadian king from Nineveh that is more than 4,000 years old; a Sumerian marble head of a woman from Warka dated 3000 B.C.; a white limestone votive bowl with detailed engravings, also from Warka and dated 3000 B.C.; a life-size statue representing King Entemena from Ur, dated 2430 B.C.; a large ivory relief representing the Assyrian god Ashur; and the head of a marble statue of Apollo, which is a Roman copy of a fourth century B.C. Greek original.

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[kayell]

6. Thank you for finding that story

glad to know that I wasn't hallucinating. The shame is that the NYT will never own up to it after this long. Even if they had been caught at the time the retraction would have appeared on page A23. Glad to see that the media is still doing a great job in reporting the real story, digging deep to find out where the administration lies are. :eyes:

[Classical_Liberal]

2. I always thought so and this sure looks fishy

.

[U2Shark]

3. Nah...Can't be true.

Why, Rumsfeld himself said that the extent of the looking was pretty much just one guy with a vase.

[realFedUp]

4. Wonder whose collections the stolen pieces have shown up in...

Check Cheney's basement.

[Rex]

5. I believe the press...unless the press tells me the news

is coming from those dastardly liburl media folks. Honestly, I don't know why they are allowed to have a voice...(foam, drool, spittle). Why don't we just lock em all away (pant pant) and throw away the key? IF YOU'RE NOT WITH US THEN YOU MUST WORSHIP AND MAKE BABIES WITH TERRORISTS...ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH (jumps out the window).