Iraq's National Museum reopened Monday, six years after it was looted and vandalised in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion.It is estimated that about 15,000 artefacts and antiquities were stolen in the chaos that accompanied Saddam Hussein's ousting. Some 6,000 items have been retrieved.
"It was a dark age that Iraq passed through," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said during the reopening ceremony Monday. A "wave of ignorance" had swept the country following the invasion. "I'd like to offer my sincerest thanks to all the countries which stood by Iraq, whether through their contributions towards rebuilding this museum or returning the smuggled artefacts," he said.
Al-Maliki called the pillaging of the museum a "destruction of this cradle of civilisation." Tourism and Archaeology Minister Qahtan al-Jaboury said that a further 10,000 pieces, looted from other archeological sites in Iraq, had been recovered thanks to co-operation with local Iraqis, Arab and European countries.
Al-Jaboury specified that of those 10,000 pieces, 701 were returned from Syria, 2,466 pieces from Jordan and 1,046 pieces from the US. Other pieces were brought back from countries such as Egypt, Italy, Peru and Sweden. After the inauguration ceremony, al-Maliki walked around the museum, under tight security. A number of nearby streets had already been sealed off.
The Iraqi museum was established in 1923, and was one of the most significant in the world. It particularly focused on the development of the Mesopotamian civilisation. Among the guests at the re-opening ceremony was Ekmeliddin Ihsan Oglu, Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, who arrived in Baghdad on Sunday night.