Sherry Chandler

If you’ve been with me long, you know that I have an ongoing concern for the antiquities of Iraq and the careless way they have been damaged by our war there.

Earlier this year, I featured a NYTimes article about Donny George and the way he has been rebuilding the National Museum and recovering the treasures looted when the U.S. first took Baghdad.

There was even an article about how Iraq hoped to rebuild Babylon into a sort of theme park for tourists.

But now, according to an article in the Guardian, Donny George has been forced to flee to Syria:

Iraq’s most prominent archaeologist has resigned and fled the country, saying the dire security situation, an acute shortage of funds, and the interference of supporters of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had made his position intolerable.

Donny George, who was president of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, achieved international recognition for his efforts to track down and recover the priceless antiquities looted from Iraq’s National Museum in the mayhem that followed the fall of Baghdad in 2003.

But this week he revealed that he had resigned and was in hiding with his family in the Syrian capital Damascus. In an interview with the Art Newspaper, Dr George said Baghdad was now so dangerous that the National Museum, which houses a trove of Sumerian and Babylonian artefacts, had been sealed off by concrete walls to protect it from insurgent attacks and further looting.

…

Dr George painted a bleak picture for the future of Iraq’s ancient treasures. He said that excavation and conservation projects in Iraq had stalled and that all the foreign archaeologists had left the country.

He said the 1,400 members of the special antiquities protection force would be going without pay, meaning there would be little to stop further looting at the country’s 11,000 archaeological sites. “From September there is no more money for their salaries,” said Dr George. “The coalition has to do something about this.”

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“The board has come under the increasing influence of al-Sadr,” claimed Dr George. “I can no longer work with these people who have come in with the new ministry. They have no knowledge of archaeology, no knowledge of antiquities.”

Dr George, a Christian, said he had battled to prevent an Islamist and anti-western agenda from taking over at the antiquities department. “A lot of people have been sent to our institutions. They are only interested in Islamic sites and not Iraq’s earlier heritage. The Sadrists did not like me having any contact with anyone from outside,” he said.

Since the war Dr George has travelled the world, highlighting the plight of his country’s ancient heritage. He had forged close ties with foreign institutions, including the British Museum. Hannah Bolton, a spokeswoman for the museum, said the museum promised to continue cooperating with the Iraqi authorities, and also hoped to continue its close relationship with Dr George.

The culture ministry could not be reached for comment yesterday but a senior Sadrist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Dr George had served throughout the former regime and “had done nothing to stop Saddam carving his name into the walls of every brick” during the reconstruction of the ancient palace at Babylon.