From the WSJ Opinion Archives
LEISURE & ARTS
Saving Iraq's Treasures
The British and Swiss get tough about smuggling.
International laws covering art and antiquities have gone through major changes in the past year, largely as a result of the war in Iraq. Not since the 1970 Unesco Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property have they attracted so much international attention.
Earlier this month saw "Not for Sale," a two-day Swiss-British conference, held in Geneva, on the traffic in artifacts from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bringing together an unusual group of antiquities dealers, collectors, academics, museum professionals, politicians, diplomats and law-enforcement officials from around the world, it was organized to discuss the implementation of new laws passed by Britain and Switzerland, and to consider strategies for better policing and tracking down of illegally excavated as well as stolen antiquities.
Both countries were known for being clearinghouses for stolen antiquities. To rectify that, they are now acceding to the Convention. In addition, last December Britain passed the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act, which makes it illegal to knowingly deal in stolen artifacts. Both countries have also decided to adhere to U.N. Resolution 1483, passed last May, that calls for an international ban on the trade in Iraqi cultural property. To give the force of law to this resolve, Britain last year passed The Iraq Order 2003, which makes it a criminal offense to possess or deal in Iraqi cultural property removed from Iraq after 1990. The aim of these steps is to stifle illicit trafficking by introducing greater transparency to the antiquities market.
In addition, the two countries have agreed on the need for more cooperation among art professionals, academics and law-enforcement agencies; to set up expert task forces to work with law enforcement; and to create databases to track stolen artifacts.
The market in illicit antiquities is global. Along with trafficking in drugs and arms, it is one of the most widespread crimes. Iraq has lately become the crux of the problem of the global black market in antiquities because of the increased amount of theft. The Coalition Provisional Authority has only just been able to begin organizing and training an archaeological protection service, and once looted, antiquities can be moved easily across borders because of the general lack of security.
The looting of the Iraq Museum last April and the subsequent recovery of a number of its major objects--thanks to the U.S. military investigation and military police--have received a lot of publicity. However, a continuing problem is the raiding of archaeological sites and the smuggling of a large number of antiquities out of the country. This has received much less attention from the media.
The extent of illicit excavation in Iraq today is unprecedented. Iraqi archaeologists and the CPA ministry of culture report that in the past 10 months the destruction at archaeological sites has reached a previously unimagined level. Local looters dig up antiquities, which are then taken out of the country to be sold on the black market. These objects range in size from three-inch-tall cylinder seals carved out of semiprecious stones, which can be easily concealed in a jacket pocket, to large-scale sculptures removed from the palace walls of the Assyrian kings (such as Ashurnasirpal's palace at Nimrud, 883-859 B.C.). These antiquities have surfaced in the U.S., Switzerland, Italy and Britain.
While some objects can be recovered and have been, there is no reversing the damage inflicted on the ancient sites by the plunderers. Archaeology is a slow, painstaking process, in which scholars and their assistants excavate a site with the utmost care to avoid accidentally damaging or destroying still-buried objects, tombs, palaces and other historical evidence. Yet the looters' indiscriminate, illicit digging inevitably results in the destruction of the scientific and historical context. Since last April, entire ancient Mesopotamian cities such as Isin, Larsa and Mashkan-Shapir--all of them major Babylonian metropolises--have been destroyed in this way in Iraq. It is no exaggeration to say that we are witnessing a large-scale destruction of Mesopotamian history--a history that, once gone, can never be retrieved.
Without the guards at ancient sites and police at border points in the country, Iraqi cultural heritage will continue to be plundered. Fortunately, however, the new laws passed by Switzerland and Britain will make it harder to bring those looted objects to market. It is a first step, but an important one, in stopping the world-wide traffic in stolen antiquities.
Ms. Bahrani is an associate professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University.
