UN-led team finds Iraqi art looting less extensive but netting high-value objects

A United Nations-led team of international art experts has found that although the looting of Iraq's museums and cultural sites was less extensive than first thought, the objects that were taken were of high value while less valuable pieces as well as copies were left behind.

The team, put together by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was sent to Iraq on an assessment mission as part of the agency's efforts to recover the priceless antiquities looted from Baghdad and other museums, some of them dating back over 7,000 years, following the capture of Baghdad by coalition forces.

While in Baghdad the mission, led by UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Mounir Bouchenaki, met with officials from the United States-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, including Ambassador Piero Cordone, Civil Administrator for Iraqi Cultural Heritage, who promised his full readiness to facilitate the work of the Organization.

The experts called for coalition forces to protect cultural sites in Baghdad and also archaeological digs in the south and north of Iraq, which continue to be vulnerable to looters.

They mainly concentrated on questions related to the theft of cultural objects, the preparation of an inventory for the Baghdad Museum and the fine tuning of an action plan aimed at restoring the principal cultural institutions of the city, and in particular, at enabling the employees of the museums to resume their activities.

Meanwhile, in the north of Iraq, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched the first project of the Iraq Reconstruction and Employment Programme (IREP) designed to provide jobs to the local population, employing labourers to provide essential indoor and outdoor cleaning services to the Al Zahrawee 400-bed hospital in Mosul.