Irak.- Recuperada la 'Mona Lisa de
Mesopotamia', una de las piezas más importantes robadas del Museo de
Bagdad
La 'Mona Lisa de Mesopotamia', una de las piezas más
importantes del Museo de Bagdad que fueron robadas tras la caída del régimen de
Sadam Husein el pasado mes de abril, ha sido recuperada, según informó hoy el
ministro de Cultura.
Se trata de una escultura sumeria de mármol que representa
la cabeza de una mujer y que data de más de 5.000 años, procedente de la ciudad
de Warka (la antigua Uruk, en el sur). "No tengo detalles sobre el lugar en que
fue encontrada, pero posiblemente nunca haya salido de Irak", declaró el
ministro, Mufid Mohamed Yauad al Yazairi, a la prensa en Bagdad.
La escultura, de 20 centímetros de altura, data del 3100
antes de Cristo y fugura entre las cinco piezas más importantes que
desaparecieron tras el saqueo del Museo Arqueológico de Bagdad.
"Hemos perdido demasiadas piezas, pero haremos todo lo
posible por recuperarlas. Este hallazgo demuestra que nuestros esfuerzos no son
en vano", añadió el ministro, quien agradeció a los ciudadanos y a la Policía
iraquíes su colaboración, que ha permitido la recuperación de decenas de piezas.
Yazairi acusó al antiguo régimen de utilizar la cultura al
servicio del poder. "Asfixiaron la voz del pueblo y transformaron este
Ministerio en un utensilio antidemocrático. Ahora podemos reparar el mal que se
ha hecho, promover la cultura y proteger a los intelectuales y artistas".
Asimismo, instó a la comunidad internacional a "ayudar a
Irak a recuperar su herencia", un patromonio cultural que ha sufrido los doce
años de sanciones internacionales de la ONU.
By
Rosalind Russell
BAGHDAD,
Sept 17 (Reuters) - Crouching over a tin trunk, Dr Ahmed Kamil gently picks up a
piece of the Vase of Warka, an ancient treasure which, until this year, had
survived 5,000 years of war and invasion in the land now called Iraq.
The
delicately carved vase from the Sumerian kingdom of Mesopotamia lies in 14
pieces in a hot, airless storeroom in the Iraqi National Museum, a victim of the
U.S.-led war which toppled Saddam Hussein in April.
In the
final days of the war, looters broke into the museum and stole or vandalised
thousands of artefacts charting mankind's development in the "Cradle of
Civilisation" between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Five
months on, the battered museum is emblematic of postwar Iraq. Walking through
dark, deserted galleries and up marble staircases smashed by looters, the task
of restoring its once glorious international reputation looks daunting.
Some of
the museum's antiquities have been recovered -- some unscathed, others badly
damaged like the Warka vase, an offering to the gods and the most significant
piece in the world-renowned museum. Other treasures were hidden in vaults before
the war.
"Some
things are safe and for that we are thankful," said Kamil, our guide on a
private tour of the museum. "But the value of the things that have gone is
immeasurable, they are unique things, their value is greater than
money."
GATHERING DUST
Except
for two hours in July, when the museum displayed a glittering collection of gold
and jewellery known as the Treasure of Nimrud to Iraq's U.S. governor Paul
Bremer and other handpicked guests, the building in west Baghdad has been closed
to visitors since the war.
No date
has been set for the reopening of galleries displaying artefacts from Sumer,
Akkad and Babylon -- ancient Mesopotamian kingdoms which were the first on earth
to develop a written language, study the stars and enforce laws.
The rooms
are locked, their display cabinets empty, gathering dust. The bronze Statue of
Basitki used to be on a podium among other items from the Akkadian kingdom. Now
a dark scratch across the floor shows where the thieves hauled its 600 lb (272
kg) weight out of the building.
Across
the room, a limestone Babylonian lion has been decapitated, and two rough holes
are left in the wall after looters ripped out a pair of bronze sitting bulls
from 2,500 BC.
More than
10,000 items are missing from the museum, including around 30 major pieces such
as the Basitki statue and the marble face of a Sumerian woman.
An
international operation led by the U.S. military to recover stolen items has
already scored some major successes. More than 3,400 items from the museum have
been recovered -- some found as far afield as Britain, the United States, Italy
and Jordan.
HIDDEN FROM VIEW
Many are
now in a ground floor storage room guarded by an elderly man who smokes
cigarettes by the door.
The
shattered Vase of Warka was returned in the boot of a car as part of a
"no-questions-asked" amnesty programme. Other pieces were found on sale in
Baghdad, in houses raided by U.S. soldiers or Iraqi police and in cars heading
for Iraq's borders.
On one
table there are dozens of pottery fragments, on another ivory carvings, clay
tablets of ancient cuneiform text and one of the missing bronze bulls. In a
small cardboard box sits a delicate gold leaf which once hung from the crown of
a Sumerian princess.
Museum
curators, still nervous about poor security in Baghdad, say it is too soon to
think about putting them back on show.
"I don't
know when we can open these back in the galleries again, or bring things up from
the vaults," said Kamil, an expert in the cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia.
"We want
to improve security first, we need to repair the damage here, reinforce the
doors and get lasers like other museums have."
WINGED BULLS
There is
one room which survived the war intact, simply by virtue of the size of its
contents.
Lining
the walls of the Assyrian gallery are giant carved limestone tablets that
decorated the palaces of the Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Nineveh. The tablets
depict battles with bows and arrows, kings, commanders and servants.
Two
winged bulls -- with the heads of men and wings of eagles -- were saved from
thieves by their 40 tonne weight.
A stone
statue of King Shalmanezzer III, a warrior king from the ninth century BC, was
grabbed from the museum but later returned, in six pieces. It has been repaired
and is back on its stand.
"We hope
to open the Assyrian gallery next month," said Dr Ibrahim Jaber, the head of the
museum. "It is one of just 30 galleries at the museum, but for us it is a
start."
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