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Iraq: U.S. Investigator Says Reports Of Iraqi Museum Looting Were Exaggerated, But Challenges Remain

By Andrew F. Tully, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Matthew Bogdanos is an expert in classical studies, a New York prosecutor, and the U.S. Marine officer who has been assigned to track down the stolen treasures of Iraq's cultural heritage. While Bogdanos says initial estimates of huge losses were exaggerated, a professor of archaeology says no matter how many stolen antiquities are recovered, Iraq's National Museum will probably never be the same.

Washington, 19 May 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The senior U.S. investigator looking into the theft of treasures from Iraq's National Museum says nearly 1,000 objects have been recovered so far, and that even more items are apparently hidden in secure locations.

U.S. Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos spoke from Baghdad on 16 May in a video teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon. Bogdanos says it is still too early to say exactly all of what was stolen from the museum in the days after Baghdad fell on 9 April. But Bogdanos says his investigation has determined that the original estimates of losses were vastly overstated.

Bogdanos says more than 950 items have been recovered so far. Some, he says, were seized by his investigators or returned to his office under an amnesty. Still missing, however, are many other historically significant items, including a vessel known as the Sacred Vase of Warka that is about 5,000 years old.

Bogdanos is the son of Greek immigrants who rose from working in his parents' New York restaurant to a career in the Marines. While in the service, he received two degrees in classical studies and one in law from Columbia University, one of the country's most prestigious universities.

He left the Marines to work as an assistant prosecutor in New York, but remained a reserve officer. He was called back to active duty during the war in Afghanistan to help root out Al-Qaeda and Taliban members. He was recently transferred to Iraq to lead the search for Iraq's looted heritage.

Bogdanos says retrieving the missing objects is more complicated than simply hunting them down or declaring amnesties. He says other obstacles include poor record-keeping at the museum before the war, as well as the politics of fear that dominated Iraq before Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party were ousted.

Bogdanos notes that much of the looting at the museum was confined to its administrative offices, not the museum itself, indicating that looters were interested more in mundane objects like furniture and computers.

On the other hand, Bogdanos says, one area of the museum complex where priceless objects were stolen showed evidence that it had been breached by professional thieves. This was one of the museum's basement-level storage areas.

Meanwhile, Bogdanos says his 14 investigators have no access to almost 7,000 additional pieces of Iraq's past that are reportedly being held in two underground vaults in the country's central bank.

He says the museum staff has provided him with an inventory of these items, but that there is no way to establish its reliability until the vaults are opened. He says his investigators have no authority to open them and that he does not yet know who has that authority.

According to Bogdanos, there is yet another site where he believes ancient Iraqi artifacts are being held for safekeeping.

Bogdanos says he is reluctant to get these staff members to break their oaths, which he says were made on the Koran.

Eric Cline, an assistant professor of ancient history and archaeology at the Washington-based George Washington University, says he wishes Bogdanos good luck in the search for looted Iraqi antiquities. But Cline says Bogdanos' task may be impossible to accomplish completely, given problems with record-keeping. He says that appears to stem from the country's financial problems since the 1991 Gulf War.

Cline says he has heard reports -- which he cannot confirm -- that Hussein not only ordered some of his country's treasures hidden away but also had them sold. That, he says, will make it difficult to organize a complete restoration of the museum.

Still, according to Cline, it appears that Bogdanos and his investigators will meet with some success in restoring Iraq's National Museum, not only as a repository for the earliest artifacts of humankind but also as an attraction for the casual visitor, and as a rewarding research center for scholars.

But Cline emphasizes that this is only his best guess. He says he will be eager to visit Baghdad someday to find out for himself whether Bogdanos was able to restore the institution back to its former glory.