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Iraq | ||
"Lady of Uruk" back to Iraq's National Museam | ||
2003-09-24 | ||
Iraqi's most cherished antiquity, the 5,000-year-old Warka Mask, returned home Tuesday safe and sound after being looted during the anarchy that accompanied Saddam Hussein's fall in April. Captain Vance Kuhner said the mask was found after an intensive search by US troops and Iraqi police which led them to a farm just north of Baghdad where it was discovered buried under six inches (15 centimetres) of dirt. "A tip-off came to the museum, we were given an address that led us to a juvenile, then an older man and eventually the culprit. Then it took a week of negotiations," Kuhner, from the 519th Military Police Battalion, said.
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Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
#2 Chuck, Thanks for the link to the interim report. I hadn't picked it up before. Amazing how little media attention it's received! |
Posted by: Ralph 2003-9-24 8:26:44 PM |
#1 The interim report on the looting is available here Important notes: The museum and the grounds were used as fighting positions by the Iraqi Army The looting of display exhibits was done by someone who knew what to take. The looting of the basement storerooms was done by someone who knew the secret hiding place of the keys to the rooms, Much treasure is under guard by the locals, who refuse to turn it over to the Baathist thugs still running the museum. |
Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2003-9-24 12:40:55 PM |