Iraq's national museum remains shut — and counting its losses

Cara Buckley
FOR a few brief hours, 36 spectators — journalists, politicians and their guards — gathered at the National Museum of Iraq, their voices echoing through its vast, darkened halls. It was one of the few occasions when outsiders had been allowed inside since Baghdad fell and looters stripped the galleries of 15,000 Mesopotamian artefacts. The sacking of the museum became a wrenching symbol of the losses of the war. Its directors have recovered 4000 missing pieces, among them gems, Islamic coins and carved stones. The pace of recovery picked up as word spread that rewards were being offered for items returned. Still, executive director Amira Eidan said she could not forecast when the museum might reopen because restoration efforts had been slowed by insufficient financing....
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