Posted on: Wednesday, April 16, 2003

EDITORIAL
Recovery of Iraq art a global effort

The black market for ancient artifacts has got to be buzzing. U.S. and allied forces in Iraq were so preoccupied with combat that they forgot to save the art.

We'd sympathize, but the Pentagon had plenty of warning that some of the world's pre-eminent Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian treasures were housed in Baghdad and needed protecting.

U.S. troops secured palaces, government buildings and all 1,000 oil wells in southern Iraq. But they were unable to secure Baghdad's National Museum and Library.

Now, after the proverbial horse has bolted, we're locking the barn door. Secretary of State Colin Powell says the U.S. will lead an effort to recover Iraqi treasures that have been looted and possibly destroyed. A team of 30 UNESCO experts is poised to take inventory of the damage.

Among the missing are tablets with Hammurabi's Code, one of mankind's earliest codes of law; the four-millennia-old copper head of an Akkadian king, golden bowls, colossal statues, ancient manuscripts and bejeweled lyres.

At the National Library, one of the oldest surviving copies of the Quran was set afire.

In the absence of security, angry, poor and oppressed people loot. It shouldn't come as a surprise when you consider the quality-of-life gap between Baath Party elitists and commoners.

We only hope that museums, art dealers and collectors around the world join a global effort to return these artifacts to Iraq.