An employee stands next to antiquities during the re-opening ceremony of Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad yesterday. Iraqi Prime Minister Al Abadi reopened the national museum almost 12 years after it was looted in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. Around one-third of an estimated 15,000 artefacts stolen from the museum in the post-invasion chaos have been retrieved over the years.
Baghdad: Iraq’s national museum officially reopened yesterday after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 pieces looted during the US-led invasion were recovered.
The reopening was brought forward in what officials said was a response to the destruction of priceless artefacts by Islamic State group jihadists in the northern city of Mosul.
“We have been preparing to reopen for the past couple of months, the museum should be open to everyone,” Qais Hussein Rashid, the deputy tourism and antiquities minister, said.
“The events in Mosul led us to speed up our work and we wanted to open it today as a response to what the gangs of Daesh did,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group.
On Thursday, the jihadists who have occupied the second city of Mosul since June last year released a video in which militants smash ancient statues with sledgehammers in the city’s museum.
Militants are also seen using a jackhammer to deface a colossal 40-tonne Assyrian winged bull in an archaeological park in Mosul.
The destruction sparked global outrage, calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and fears over the fate of other major heritage sites in areas under IS control.
The Mosul destruction was the worst disaster to strike Iraq’s treasures since the national museum in Baghdad was looted in the chaos that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
Officials said yesterday that about 15,000 pieces were looted in 2003, of which 4,300 have been recovered.
The museum is due to reopen to the public today. Tickets will cost 1,500 dinars (just over $1) for Iraqis, $10 for foreign Arabs and $20 for other foreigners.AFP
