U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Matthew Bogdanos used a compelling combination of photographic slides, poignant anecdotes and literary quotations last night to discuss his experiences investigating the looting of the National Museum of Iraq, which experienced extensive looting during the confusion and destruction of the April 2003 invasion of Baghdad by U.S. troops.
Bogdanos began his presentation with a quotation from Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul."
Bodganos, who had been working as an assistant district attorney in New York City, was deployed to Afghanistan after Sept. 11 to track down terrorism suspects. He had also been investigating terrorists in Iraq when he was brought into a coalition entrusted with reconstruction and recovery of the museum.
Though comparable prestige to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Louvre in Paris, Bogdanos said the museum was attacked because of its association with Saddam Hussein's regime, just like "every building and everything" tied to the regime.
"The average Iraqi called it 'Saddam's gift shop,'" Bogdanos said.
In the span of 48 hours, 170,000 artifacts were taken from the museum by looters, according to Bogdanos. People often walked away with special gifts from the museum's extensive collection.
A list of items that were stolen at this time "reads like a Who's Who in an art history book," Bogdanos said, before showing various slides with pictures of some of the most significant pieces taken.
He showed slides of some of the most valuable artifacts taken, including the sacred Vase of Warka, the golden bull's head from the Golden Harp of Ur, the Akkadian Bassetki statue, the Mask of Warka (belived to be the oldest surviving mask in the world) and the Treasure of Nimru.
"The world ... reacted with heartbreak and sorrow," Bogdanos said. "The world was justifiably outraged."
Bogdanos also mentioned that, although international responses to the incident included resolutions issued by the United Nations and Interpol, formal complaints lodged by 18 countries and six conferences held in four months by UNESCO, none of the parties actually sent people into Iraq.
"Everyone is guilty of the good they didn't do," he said, quoting Voltaire.
The first images he saw at the 11-acre museum included a gaping hole over the entrance, a sign that said "Death to all American and Zionist Pigs," and grenades on the ground.
"Every single office ... was completely and utterly destroyed," he said. "They used the [inventory] records to set the bonfire."
The vast majority of the display cases in the gallery were entirely undamaged, though items were taken from them.
The destruction of the museum struck a chord with Bogdanos, who holds a master's degree in classics. "I immediately decided that this is our mission," he said.
Bogdanos then took steps to begin recuperating the artifacts.
"The first thing I decided to do was establish a country-wide amnesty program," he said. "'You bring it back and nothing will happen. No questions asked.'"
Bogdanos recognized the courage it took for the people who were involved to believe him. The punishment for stolen antiquities under Hussein was capital punishment, and several people were beheaded for this crime on public television in 1999.
Through traveling to mosques and drinking countless cups of tea with local people, the group went about "developing friendships and trust and developing sources in and around Baghdad."
As a result of these strategies and the amnesty program, hundreds of stolen items were returned to the museum each day. Bogdanos discussed the reasons so many things were returned, citing changes of mind, "pangs of consciousness," and fear of being caught.
From April to December 2003, 1,935 pieces were returned and more have been brought back since then.
The model turned out to be successful outside of Iraq.
Bogdanos told his listeners a story about a man who had contacted him when he was back in New York City. The man asked if the amnesty program established in Iraq was applicable in the states too.
Bogdanos told him it was, and the man insisted on returning the stolen item - a 4000-year-old Acadian tablet - directly to Bogdanos in "the middle of the day in a crowded midtown coffee shop."
He concluded his speech by outlining the three different groups of thefts that had taken place at the museum: one carried out by professionals, one that was seemingly more randomized and less organized, and one clearly carried out by insiders.
