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Donny George; A Real-Life Treasure Hunt.(director of Iraqi National Museum)(Interview)
Byline: Cathleen McGuigan
It's been two years since the start of the Iraq war, and with increasing news coverage of insurgents, torture scandals and successful elections, one issue has taken a back seat: the looting of the Iraq museum in Baghdad. Not so for Donny George, the museum's director, whose responsibility it is to try to locate and retrieve the priceless antiquities stolen in the mayhem that followed the liberation of Baghdad, as well as protect those items that were left behind. Currently also working with the World Monuments Fund, UNESCO and the Getty Center to train Iraqi employees in conservation and restoration, George took time out to speak with NEWSWEEK's Cathleen McGuigan about his efforts. Excerpts:
MCGUIGAN: Even when the looting began in 2003, there was great disagreement over the number of objects taken from the Iraqi National Museum.
GEORGE: The number given at that time was 170,000 objects. That was a mistake by journalists. We have lost 15,000 objects, but I believe the number will go up, as we have not finished the assessment of the damages yet. From those, we've retrieved 3,323 items with the Iraqi museum numbers on them--which mean they were actually stolen. We also have retrieved 1,450 items that came from the archeological sites. They have come to us through the Iraqi police, Iraqi customs, the multinational forces that are working on these things and the Iraqi people.
We also have some good number of items seized in neighboring countries: 38 pieces in Kuwait, 18 in Saudi Arabia, 1,250 in Jordan, 360 in Syria. We have 300 in Italy and over 600 in the United States. They have surfaced in those countries and been seized by the authorities there.
But we don't know what is there in Turkey or Iran. We are sure that Iraqi items are smuggled through these countries.
You've said that you don't actually want stolen items returned from countries like Italy or the United States. You want them to stay there for safekeeping?
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Source: HighBeam Research, Donny George; A Real-Life Treasure Hunt.(director of Iraqi National...