Missing Iraqi artefacts surface to form unique exhibition

The Coalition Provisional Authority is staging the first art exhibition in post-war Iraq. The event planned in Baghdad for an audience of international media, shows off the fabled Treasures of Nimrud. The spectacular, bejewelled collection from ancient Assyria, discovered earlier this month in a bank vault deep in the Central Bank of Iraq, is the pride of the cultural recovery effort.

Giuseppe Proietti, a senior cultural adviser to the coalition, disclosed the plans on a recent visit to the U.S. Proietti, Italy's director general for archaeology at the Ministry of Culture, serves in the cultural affairs department of occupation administrator Paul Bremer.

With people still dying in the streets, an art exhibit could seem frivolous. And the timing might seem overtly propagandistic. But as the White House has learned in the aftermath of war in Iraq, art is a mighty weapon in the battle for hearts and minds.

Lose or abuse the treasures of ancient civilisations, or fail to prevent others from doing so, and incur a blast of international disapproval. Preserve artifacts and share the heritage of humankind, and perhaps, over time, even a foreign invader may gain respect.

The art show will not be the first cultural event since the war, said a coalition spokesman from Baghdad, noting that the Iraqi National Symphony performed last Friday.

A Pentagon spokesman was quick to convey the importance of the Nimrud treasures as "among the most feared loss, and the most unique, significant architectural finds they had."

In an age of televised war, images have also become weapons. Scenes of devastated museum galleries were sent around the world in April, along with considerable misinformation about how many objects had been looted and possibly destroyed. In the weeks since, major works have been found or returned. None of the finds has been more thrilling than the Nimrud collection, considered among the 20th century's most significant archaeological discoveries.

The gold and enamelled earrings, rings, necklaces, plates and bowls dating to 900 B.C. had been stashed in wooden crates and deposited at the Central Bank, possibly at the time of the 1991 Gulf War. There, they rode out the Shock and Awe bombardment and escaped thieves until June 7, when U.S. agents inspected a vault within a vault.

The treasures haven't been seen in public since the early 1990s. If media coverage accompanies the event, images will be broadcast around the world.

Asked whether politics played a part in coalition decision-making, Proietti laughed and assured that none were involved in the choice of Assyrian objects.

Proietti was in Washington to lead a seminar on the exhibition and preservation of Italian antiquities, which are also subject to looters. In partnership with the State Department, Italy is volunteering to lend its vast collection of artifacts and ancient art more aggressively.

Plunder of archaeological sites is what worries Proietti most about the situation in Iraq. He left Baghdad in late June. The visit, his second in 30 days, was a source of frustration. He judged roads to ancient sites in the North, South and West too unsafe for travel.

"I only saw Baghdad," said Proietti. "The most important thing now is to see the damage in the archaeological areas."

Proietti does not doubt that organised elements are involved in illegal excavations. But he is equally sure that museums will not be in the market for Iraqi contraband.

"It is too well known," he said.

On a January visit to Baghdad, he said, Iraqi colleagues were "transferring objects into security boxes, so I knew the best part of the archaeological materials was not in the museum during the bombing and looting." He estimated that no more than 40 "very important" objects have disappeared and the number of lesser historical treasures missing at 3,000 to 4,000.

© Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service