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By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD | Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:23am EST

(Reuters) - A 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany on Monday.

The items were among thousands stolen from Iraq’s museums and archeological sites in the mayhem that followed the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The tiny gold jar, dating to 4,500 BC, the bronze axe head, clay tablets bearing cuneiform script, a metal amulet and other artifacts were seized by German police at public auctions and turned over to Iraqi officials in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Alexander Schonfelder, deputy head of the German diplomatic mission in Iraq, said German law dictated that any artifacts taken from Iraq after 1990 should be returned.

“This means that the German government has the right to confiscate them and that is what we have done, and given them back to Iraq,” Schonfelder said.

Some 15,000 artifacts were thought to have been looted from the Iraqi National Museum and thousands more from archeological sites since the start of the 2003 war.

Up to than 10,000 of the National Museum pieces are still missing, said Amira Eidan, general director of the museum.

Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or “land between two rivers” because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilization.

Many believe it gave birth to such milestones of human development as agriculture, codified law and the wheel.

In recent years the Iraqi government has slowly reassembled some of the country’s lost history.

Last September officials announced the recovery of the headless statue of a Sumerian king and more than 500 other pieces. Two weeks later the National Museum found 600 missing items stashed in a storeroom of the prime minister’s office.

In December 2008, Iraqi authorities seized 228 artifacts that smugglers planned to take out of the country.

“We are heading in coming months to retrieve Iraqi artifacts from Britain, from the United States of America, and Canada … we will follow Iraq’s antiquities wherever they are,” said Abbas al-Quraishi, head of Iraq’s artifact retrieval department.

(Reporting by Aseel Kami; Editing by Jim Loney)

http://blueshield.de/institut.html

After the founding of ICBS 15 years ago, this Conference was another defining moment in the history of the protection of cultural heritage under threat, bringing together professionals and experts in museology, documentation and in the protection and promotion of heritage and sites. The International Conference also benefited from the valuable input and expertise of professionals in the military, humanitarian, meteorological and technological disciplines.

The Seoul Declaration on the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Emergency Situations arose from this Conference, emphasizing the importance of the Blue Shield in future international relief efforts for heritage, and the paramount need for collaboration in the area of the protection of cultural heritage in emergency situations.

The recent conflict in Libya called for emergency assessment missions to determine the cultural heritage situation. After the success of the first mission to the Tripolitanian area (see online report: http://www.blueshield.at/libya_2011/mission_report_libya_2011.pdf), Blue Shield and the International Military Cultural Resources Work Group (IMCuRWG), two organizations involved in international protection of cultural heritage, organized a second mission, to obtain independent confirmation on possible damage and looting, to meet with Libyan officials and to get a first hand impression of the situation. This time the team went to Eastern Libya, Cyrenaica.

Both organizations took advantage of their experiences during the Civil-Military Assessment Mission on the status of Egyptian Heritage, February 12-16, 2011. During that mission, Blue Shield and IMCuRWG managed to get the first independent heritage assessment team into Egypt. (See their online report: http://www.blueshield.at/egypt_2011/mission_report_egypt_02_2011.pdf)

The objectives of the current Libyan missions go beyond mere damage assessment. They also focus on typical post war problems such as illegal digging and illicit traffic of cultural property. An international, timely and independent mission of this kind provides support on the general level while at the same time giving a mid-term perspective. In addition this demonstration of international concern and solidarity will encourage those Libyans who protected their heritage under extremely difficult conditions. Since the Libyan state, civil society and military are in a process of fundamental transformation, it is vital to be in contact with those who are currently responsible for Libya’s heritage. This way assistance is given to raise awareness on the protection of cultural property, and international professional support is offered and discussed on a personal and direct level.

To read the entire report and see images go to

http://blueshield.de/libya2-report.html

The Art Newspaper

By Martin Bailey | From issue 229, November 2011
Published online 31 Oct 11 (News)

Benghazi. Interpol has alerted police forces to the theft of the so-called “Benghazi Trea­s­ure”, which was stolen from a bank vault in the city on 25 May. The theft of thousands of antiquities went unpublicised at the time, some three months after rebel forces had seized Benghazi from troops loyal to the late Muammar Gaddafi.

The looted treasure, which includes Greek and Roman gold, had been stored in two padlocked second world war military chests and a safe. It has never been displayed in Libya and its existence had been virtually forgotten, except by specialist archaeologists.

Francesco Bandarin, Unesco’s head of culture, working with Libyan archaeologists, is ­det­ermined to hunt down the treasure; Interpol has alerted 188 national police forces. Inform­ation about the loss is scarce, but there is some new evidence, based on research by Italian archaeologist Serenella Ensoli, the Naples-based director of the Italian Arch­aeological Mission to Cyrene.

The antiquities had been deposited for safekeeping in the vaults of the National Com­mercial Bank in Omar al-Mukhtar Street, in the centre of Benghazi. The city was the main base of anti-Gaddafi rebels, who seized power there last February.

On 25 May, the two chests and the safe were apparently moved out of the vault, without proper authorisation, and sent to another bank building near the Hotel Dujal. Only one of the chests arrived, with the other chest and the safe going missing. To make matters worse, Ensoli suspects that the thieves went through the containers, looting the gold and silver and leaving the lesser material in the remaining chest, which went to the new location.

The Benghazi Treasure is the name given to a collection of the most important antiquities that were excavated in Cyrenaica after the first world war, when Italy occupied Libya following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The finest items were found in 1917 at the Temple of Artemis in Cyrene, the largest Greek site in Africa, which is east of Beng­hazi. Dating from the fifth and sixth centuries BC, the gold included earrings, embossed heads and a plaque depicting a battle.

Other material came from the Hellenistic Palace of Columns in Ptolemais (between Cyrene and Benghazi), which was excavated from 1937. A third element is the Meliu collection of 2,000 coins.

The Benghazi Trea­s­ure comprises 364 gold coins, 2,433 silver coins, 4,484 bronze coins, 306 pieces of jewellery and 43 other antiquities, including stat­ues. The story of its 20th-century history is only now emerging.

In 1942, when Allied forces were approaching Libya, Italian archaeologists packed up the treasure. Early the following year, they sent it to Rome in the military chests. In May 1944, the chests were moved for safekeeping to the northern city of Cremona and later to Val Brenta, in the Dolomites. After the war, the Libyan finds were returned to Rome and were deposited at the Museo Coloniale.

It was not until 1961 that the collection was finally returned to Libya. A typescript inventory was then compiled, unfortunately without photographs. On its return, the treasure was lodged in a bank vault in Benghazi, and remained there after Gaddafi seized power eight years later. In 1980, further archaeological finds were added to the material deposited at the bank.

Earlier this year, after Libyan rebels established the National Transitional Council in Benghazi, Fadel Ali Mohammed was appointed chairman of the archaeology department. On 2 June, he wrote to the attorney-general, reporting the theft of the treasure. Fadel also wrote to the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, asking for assistance in documenting the treasure. The main problem is that there are few surviving photographs of the thousands of objects, a situation Ensoli describes as “absolutely deplorable”. This will make it difficult to identify pieces should they ever appear on the market.

Update

There have been reports that 500 coins and other antiquities from the Benghazi Treasure have turned up in Egypt, but these remain unconfirmed. It has also been suggested that the coins are being offered on the black market in Libya. The problem with individual coins is that without good photographs it will be difficult to prove their provenance, and to show that they were once part of the Benghazi Treasure. Unesco director-general Irina Bukova told a meeting in Paris that the loss represented “one of the largest thefts of archaeological material in history.” Unesco now hopes to send a mission to Tripoli and Benghazi to pursue inquiries.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Interpol-confirms-Libyan-treasure-was-looted/24900

http://www.blueshield.at/libya_2011/mission_report_libya_2011.pdf

Media Release - September 30, 2011

by the Association of the National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS)
and the International Military Cultural Resources Working Group (IMCuRWG)

Libyan World Heritage Sites Safe

The recent conflict in Libya called for an emergency assessment mission to determine the cultural heritage situation. Since no independent confirmation about damage and looting had occurred thus far, two organizations involved in international protection of cultural heritage, Blue Shield and the International Military Cultural Resources Work Group, organized a mission to meet with Libyan officials and get a first hand impression of the situation.

The mission has visited the National Museum in Tripoli as well as two World Heritage archaeological sites: Sabratha and Leptis Magna. All three are closed to the public now, but well guarded. The team was very impressed by the excellent precautionary measures of the local museum professionals and archaeologists. The most important pieces were brought into the storage rooms or hidden vaults. Welding exterior doors proved to be much better protection than locks. Very important at the large archaeological sites was the intense collaboration with the local population, e.g. sheep herders.

• National Museum in Tripoli: no losses, nearly no damage.

• In Leptis Magna Gaddafi militia tried to take control of the site, but without success. Everything is safe.

• In Sabratha the Army Brigade 219 that occupied posts from early July until the 17th of August. This caused minor damage from small arms and anti aircraft fire and from the use of heavy equipment on site. The perimeter fence was broken down in many places.

Reports from other places in Libya were mixed. Among the bad news is that the museum in Misurata has been severely damaged, but it is not known if pieces are missing. The museum director was kidnapped by the Gaddafi militia shortly before the collapse and his fate is unknown.

Overall it has to be stated that there is no evidence of organized looting in the museums or sites.

The final detailed and illustrated report will be published online next week on the web site of Blue Shield Austria: http://www.kulturgueterschutz.at.

About the mission

Planning this mission began this spring, but commenced in earnest only after the cessation of active hostilities in Tripoli. There were a number of problems to be solved with regard to official approval from the Transitional Government for the team to travel to Libya, not to mention the logistical problems of travel to and within Libya.  The team flew to Djerba, Tunisia, on Tuesday, 27 September and on 28th they traveled by car to Tripoli. Today, September 30, the team has returned by the same route.

The team:

• Karl von Habsburg, President, Association of National Committees of the BlueShield (ANCBS)
• Drs Joris Kila, Chairman, International Military Cultural Resources Work Group (IMCuRWG); University of Amsterdam

Support provided by:

• Dr. Hafed Walda (archaeologist from Misurata, currently working at King’s College in London)

Home base (background research, coordination, communication): 

• Dr. Thomas Schuler, President, Disaster Relief Task Force (DRTF) International Council of Museums

Media contact:

Dr. Thomas Schuler
Tel: +49 371 2601007
Fax: +49 371 2600743
Skype: drthschuler
Email: th.schuler@t-online.de

Wed, Sep 07, 2011
AFP

SABRATHA, Libya - Libyan archaeologists are beginning to inspect the country’s priceless historical sites, hoping part of their cultural heritage and economic future has not been ruined by war.

“It is the first time I go there since the war, Gaddafi’s troops were inside and I want to know what happened,” said Fadel Ali Mohammed, Libya’s freshly appointed minister for antiquities.

Setting out from the Tripoli hotel that has become his temporary home, the 62-year-old - a doctor in archaeology and Greek philology - begins the drive west to Sabratha, one of Libya’s most treasured archaeological sites.

Despite multiple checkpoints armed by young volunteer militiamen, it only takes 90 minutes to get there. But it is an anxious 90 minutes for the man who is now in charge of protecting Libya’s past.

As Mohammed’s driver turns off the main road towards the Roman, Phoenician and Byzantine ruins, the first signs do not look good.

Like many buildings along New Sabratha’s main road, a housing block near the entrance of the UNESCO world heritage site has been subjected to heavy artillery fire that could obliterate a Roman relief, mosaic or fountain.

Slowly Old Sabratha comes into focus. First a few Corinthian columns, then the top half of its show-stopping 1,800-year-old Roman theatre, strikingly cast against the waves of the southern Mediterranean.

The security staff at the site, like many others in revolutionary Libya struggled to continue their watch during the fighting. But their reports are not as bad as feared.

Despite battles raging in the area just weeks ago, it appears only one light-arms skirmish took place between Moamer Gaddafi’s troops and the fighters who would come to overthrow him.

Mohammed, who in the 1970s spent a year in Gaddafi’s jails before fleeing to Greece, scans the west side of the 5,000-capacity theatre and comes across three bullet holes he says can be easily restored.

The damage assessment from world-beating sites at Leptis Magna and Cyrene to the east are equally positive.

With at least three of Libya’s five UNESCO sites preserved, locals hope tourists will now flock to Libya like they do to neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.

“It was very difficult for tourists to come under the Gaddafi regime,” said Hadi Mafuz, a Sabratha tourism official.

“If Gaddafi had a problem with one European country, he would block visas for all Europeans. If one of his sons came to a hotel, all reservations would be cancelled.”

If the tourists do flock in, it could, in part, be thanks to people like Mohammed and 46-year-old museum guard Ibrahim Hamad Saleh El-Zintani.

For 13 days and nights during the fasting month of Ramadan, the father of six guarded Tripoli’s Red Fort against looters, throwing barricades of scaffolding and heavy rocks against the gates first built by the Romans and later used by the Knights of Malta.

“We faced many, many difficulties. People were trying to enter the museum, they tried to steal the things but we prevented them,” he said.

“Young people from the Old City helped me. They gave me support to protect this place. Some brought me water, dates and soup.”

A neighbour brought money to his wife and children at home so they could enjoy the festivities.

Inside the fort, Mohammed and the staff had already built what they hoped would be the ultimate defence, a bricked and painted false wall in one museum wing.

Behind the wall lay any valuable artefact that could be carried. Only heavy statues and modern tat was on show.

“We were afraid that something exactly like this would happen,” said Mohammed.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110907-298184.html