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Article: The imperiled past: appreciating our cultural heritage.(Culture Watch)
- Article from:
- UN Chronicle
- Article date:
- December 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 United Nations Publications. 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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In the turmoil following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, a few days were enough for Iraqi looters to ravage 7,000 years of human history.
Despite the warnings of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) experts to heed the lessons of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, at the close of which nine Iraqi museums were plundered, a new crime was committed against Iraq's cultural heritage. Looters devastated the National Museum in Baghdad, as well as many other homes of cultural heritage, such as the National Archives, the Manuscripts Centre and the Baghdad Library. Priceless treasures of Mesopotamian art were lost among the thousands of ...