Looting of Baghdad museum condemned

NEW DELHI: Historians, artists and archaeologists on Thursday strongly condemned the recent looting and desecration of priceless works of art and heritage in the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad.
Expressing anguish, the intellectuals spoke of the cross- cultural and economic links between India and Mesopotamia dating back to pre-historic times and feared the looted items would eventually resurface with antique dealers in the West.
Historian D N Jha of Delhi University briefly outlined the features of the Indo-Mesopotamian link and praised the secular past of Iraq. According to Jha, not only did trade exist between the two civilisations, but Harappan seals had also been found in large numbers in Iraq. In the middle ages, he said, Baghdad had a bureau which translated Sanskrit works like the Panchatantra and Charaksamhita into Arabic. Similarly, Arabic works were translated into Sanskrit.
Jha said the Mesopotamian culture was not only the first to come up with a calendar, script and cities but was also the birthplace of Prophet Ibrahim who is worshipped by Christians, Muslims and Jews. ‘‘The US has destroyed all that,’’ Jha said.
Kapila Vatsyayan, former head of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, spoke of the paradox of human greed for material by destroying material. Speaking from her experience of the Baghdad museum, she said it boasted of one of the best collections of artifacts and literature. ‘‘Why were only the national archives and the museum targeted? It cannot be a spontaneous uprising as the US is making it out to be,’’ she said.
Vatsyayan expressed surprise that the UN could do nothing to avoid the loot. Even the Hague charter for the protection of cultural heritage was not invoked.
Noted archaeologist M C Joshi, who had worked in the Baghdad museum, felt that the wanton loot could not have been committed by Iraqis. An international antique mafia, he said, would benefit from this loot. ‘‘For some years, these antiques would go underground and
then resurface in Europe later,’’ he said.
He appealed to the international community to cooperate in recovering the artifacts. ‘‘It is possible to detect the loot even now because I feel most of the items have not gone out of Iraq,’’ Joshi said.