Mosul Museum restores artifacts destroyed by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq

Left in shambles by jihadists, Iraq’s once-notorious Mosul museum and its 2,500-year-old treasures are being given a second life thanks to restoration efforts backed by French experts.

Ancient artifacts in the museum were smashed into small pieces when fighters from the Islamic State group took over the northern city of Mosul in 2014 and made it their seat of power for three years.

“We must separate all the fragments … It’s like a puzzle, you try to recover the pieces that tell the same story,” said restoration worker Daniel Ibled, commissioned by France’s famous Louvre museum, who supports museum employees. Iraqi.

“Little by little, you manage to recreate the complete set.”

When ISIS jihadists were in control, they filmed themselves carrying hammers to pre-Islamic treasures they considered heretical, proudly announcing their uproar in a video posted in February 2015.

The larger and heavier artifacts were destroyed for the sake of propaganda, but the smaller pieces were sold on black markets around the world.

The scars of its destruction remain today.

On the ground floor of the museum, the twisted iron bars of the foundation peek through a huge hole.

In other rooms, stones of various sizes are scattered, some with engravings of animal legs or wings. Others show inscriptions in cuneiform script.

The smallest of these fragments, no bigger than a fist, is lined up on a table and experts are working hard to classify them.

For now, his efforts focus on a winged lion from the city of Nimrud, jewel of the Assyrian empire, two “lamassu” – winged bulls with human heads – and the base of the throne of King Ashurnasirpal II.

Giant puzzle

These pieces, many of which date back to the first millennium BC, are being revived with funding from the International Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Areas of Conflict (ALIPH).

Along with the Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington is also undergoing efforts, providing training to museum teams, as well as the New York-based World Monuments Fund, which is tasked with restoring the building.

The base of the Assyrian king’s throne, covered with cuneiform writing, appears almost fixed.

Some pieces are held together by elastic bands or small metal rings.

“The base of the throne was pulverized into more than 850 pieces,” said museum official Choueib Firas Ibrahim, an expert on Sumerian studies. “We have gathered two-thirds of them.”

For some pieces, writing fragments or straight lines helps teams put them together like a giant puzzle.

“We read the inscriptions on this base and were able to restore the pieces to their place,” said restorer Taha Yassin.

But other pieces without “a flat surface or inscriptions” make them virtually indistinguishable and are more complicated, Yassin added.

Empty spaces

A year after Iraqi troops recaptured Mosul in 2017, the museum received an urgent grant in an attempt to restore it to its former glory.

After delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, museum director Zaid Ghazi Saadallah said he expects restoration work to be completed within five years.

But many gaps will remain, and posters on the walls identify the lost artifacts.

“Most of the pieces are destroyed or looted,” Saadallah said.

Iraq has suffered from looting of its antiquities for decades, particularly after the 2003 US-led invasion, as well as during the subsequent Islamic State takeover.

But the current government says it has made repatriation of artifacts a priority.

The Louvre has commissioned 20 people to assist in the restoration efforts, said Ariane Thomas, director of the Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities.

After three missions this year, seven French experts will take turns visiting Iraq to help guide the restoration process, carried out with about 10 museum employees.

Once the restoration work is finished, an online exhibition will be held to publicize the work.

“When we said that with time, money and technical know-how, we could revive even the most damaged works, it shows,” said Thomas.

“The works that were completely destroyed have begun to take shape once again.”

(AFP)