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By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
washingtonpost.com
Thursday, May 8, 2003; Page A16

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U.S. Customs agents announced yesterday that investigators, working with military officials and Iraqi authorities, have recovered about 700 artifacts and 39,400 manuscripts that disappeared from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad during chaos and looting that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, Dean Boyd, said the recovered artifacts include a broken statue of an Assyrian from the 9th century B.C. and a chest filled with valuable manuscripts and parchments.

The agency, which is working from an inventory of losses from thefts last month, said that some high-value items apparently were stolen from vaults where museum staff had stored them for safekeeping. So far, Iraqi authorities have identified 38 missing items classified as high value, Boyd said. The museum, in central Baghdad, was believed to have held more than 170,000 items spanning 5,500 years of Mesopotamian civilization.

A statement from Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said its agents and U.S. forces opened an investigation at the National Museum when they heard news of the looting. Boyd said investigators started receiving missing artifacts after they launched a public campaign promising rewards and amnesty for returns.

"We're getting leads now on other items turning up at borders," Boyd said. The bureau is also investigating reports of artifacts showing up in other countries or being offered for sale on the black market in Iraq.

The early efforts yielded 10 pieces that included the Assyrian statue and an ancient bronze bas-relief bowl, Boyd said. A chest filled with valuable manuscripts and parchments was also relinquished. One person handed in 46 stolen antiquities.

The statement said agents also learned that large numbers of missing artifacts had been stored in vaults below the museum and apart from it. While this information has been reported before, Boyd said some of the museum's vaults were secret. These were breached by agents and U.S. military personnel, the statement said, and many more objects were recovered, including clay pots, stone burial chambers, cuneiform cylinder seals, amulets, pendants and coins, Boyd said.

The statement said other important items known to have been placed in the vaults were stolen, an indication of possible complicity by the museum staff.

Reports of thefts before the looting started and the small number of documented losses have muted some of the public outcry against U.S. forces, who were criticized for standing idle while mobs invaded the museum. Boyd said, however, that "we believe that there is more out there," and noted that the museum did not have a computerized inventory.

Nevertheless, Joseph Collins, a Pentagon official, welcomed the news of the recoveries. He said that "without making any comments on the things that led to this situation," he hoped that "we'll be leaving the system in better shape than when it started."

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Direct Link:
--http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27545-2003May7.html

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