Baghdad museum's slow recovery (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Crispin Thorold
BBC News, Baghdad

The Assyrian Hall at the Iraqi National Museum is breathtaking.

Stone panels from the royal palace at Khorsabad run along the walls.

The carvings on the friezes depict daily life in the Assyrian royal court, which at its height about 3,000 years ago controlled a region stretching across much of the modern Middle East.
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This gallery, one of only two that are open to visitors to the Iraqi National Museum, gives a hint of the glories that were once in the national collection.

That collection was devastated in the days following the US-led invasion in 2003, when looters emptied the vaults.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7144701.stm

Very sad reading for custodians, conservators, collectors, etc.