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Article: Saving Iraq's heritage; Director Neil MacGregor should be celebrating the British Museum's 250th anniversary but instead finds himself on an international mission.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- April 17, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: FIONA MADDOCKS
THE director of the British Museum is visibly agitated. Today, his legendary calm and courteous manner cannot hide exasperation. Moments before we meet, and after three days of scandalised headlines on the looting in Iraq, Neil MacGregor has learned that the ransacked Baghdad Museum still has no American soldiers protecting it. "Not one, can you believe it?" His colleague John Curtis, a world authority on Iraqi archaeology, had just managed, after weeks of silence, to make contact with his Baghdad counterpart, who has been living in the devastated building, trying manfully to protect it from further damage.
The human aspect is as ...