“The US Marines in charge of tracking down antiquities of Iraq’s National Museum say their search is “being hampered by strained relations between the US marine corps and officials of the Iraqi National Museum. The marines, who have been given responsibility for finding the missing treasures, say the staff are not cooperating. Colonel Matthew Bogdanus, who commands the taskforce conducting the search, said the officals had yet to provide an inventory of the museum’s possessions. Without that it was impossible to establish how much had been stolen. Baghdad is awash with people offering antiquities, real and fake, to foreigners. In the markets, at street corners and roundabouts, statues and seals said to be more than 5,000 years old are on offer.”
Tag: 05.06.03
Is Bureaucratic Bungling Destroying Prehistoric Lascaux Paintings?
The prehistoric caves at Lascaux have pictures painted 17,000 years ago. “Because the cave had been naturally sealed for millennia, the paintings were freshly preserved in vivid yellows, reds, and blacks. But in its April issue, the respected French science magazine La Recherche sounded an alarm, announcing that thanks to bureaucratic incompetence a good part of Lascaux may be permanently destroyed. In a story headlined ‘Lascaux, the big mess,’ it reported that the site has been suffering devastating damage from a reinfestation of fungi and bacteria for almost two years – since September 2001. One hundred fifty of the world-famous paintings have developed mold.