Mosul Museum

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Mosul Museum

The Mosul Museum , Arabic متحف الموصل, DMG Matḥaf al-Mawṣil , is an archaeological museum in Mosul , Iraq , the second largest archaeological museum in the country after the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad . It was founded in 1952 and houses in four sections Assyrian finds from Nimrud , Hellenistic and Parthian finds from Hatra , finds from the Islamic period and prehistoric objects from Tell Hassuna and other sites in northern Iraq.

history

Establishment and relocation

When the museum was founded in 1952, it only had a single small hall as exhibition space. In 1972 the company moved to a larger building.

Looting in the Iraq War

During the Iraq war in 2003, the museum was a victim of art theft and looting. In response to this, around 1,500 smaller objects were relocated to the Iraqi National Museum in April 2003 in hopes of better security there. However, both museums were later exposed to further looting. The stolen exhibits included 30 bronze panels from the Balawat city ​​gate . An exact inventory of the total extent of the looting in 2003 and possible returns to the Mosul Museum does not yet exist.

reconstruction

After the Iraq war, a long-term reconstruction followed. At the beginning of 2014, around 1,700 of the 2,400 objects in the collection were relocated to Baghdad for renovation work .

Destruction by the Islamic State

The museum was preparing to reopen when Mosul was captured by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization in June 2014 . In early 2015, large parts of the exhibition, especially Assyrian and Parthian sculptures and reliefs, were destroyed by ISIS members with sledgehammers and jackhammers . Below that is a symbol of the museum, the famous doorkeeper figure was (Assyrian. " Lamassu ") from the outside of the Assyrian Nergal -Tores (seventh century BC), the north gate in the fortification of the city of Nineveh , after a propaganda video of the IS with was destroyed with a jackhammer (the remaining Lamassu on the inside of the Nergal gate were also largely destroyed). Several of the reliefs and some of the Assyrian statues were apparently not originals, but plaster replicas of objects from other museums. The IS video also shows the destruction of well-preserved figures from the temples of the Hatra World Heritage Site . These included five statues of kings ( Uthal , Sanaṭrūq II and two unknown kings), two statues of nobles (a Makai ben Nashri and an unknown person), the torso of a Venus statue, portraits of a lion and an eagle, three reliefs as well Plaster copies of the statue of a goddess, a statue of Heracles and a large mask. Three other reliefs appeared to have survived the destruction undamaged.

In response to the Mosul iconoclasm , Irina Bokowa , Director General of UNESCO , called for a special meeting of the UN Security Council on February 27, 2015 . In crowdsourcing , a group of archaeologists trying to reconstruct the museum and its digital objects.

In the course of the battle for Mosul , Iraqi troops advanced into the city center on March 7, 2017 and regained control of important government buildings as well as the Mosul Museum. An initial inventory showed that the objects remaining in Mosul had been almost completely destroyed or looted. Almost all of the large reliefs and statues had been smashed and showcases with small objects and a cellar with objects not on display had been robbed. Presumably these objects were smuggled abroad. Only a few Arabic manuscripts seem to have survived the devastation.

literature

Museum guide

  • Directorate-General of Antiquities: Mosul Museum. Government Press, Baghdad 1958.
  • Ministry of Culture & Guidance Directorate-General of Antiquities: Guide book to Mosul Museum. 2nd ed., Government Press, Baghdad 1965.

To loot

  • Roger Atwood: Stealing History. Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World. St. Martin's Press, New York 2004, ISBN 9780312324063 .
  • Lawrence Rothfield: The Rape of Mesopotamia. Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2009, ISBN 9780226729435 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ISIS destroys Mosul museum, smashing ancient statues . In: rudaw.net. February 26, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  2. ^ A b A Museum in Mosul That Needs a Break, Not Breaking . In: art-crime.blogspot.it. February 26, 2015. Accessed March 2, 2015.
  3. ^ Riyadh Mohammed: ISIS Destroys Second Largest Museum in Iraq . In: The Fiscal Times. February 26, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  4. ↑ Guardian: Mosul descends into chaos as even museum is looted
  5. ^ Archeology: In the North of Iraq, by Roger Atwood
  6. ↑ a b Ben Wedeman: ISIS devastated Mosul Museum, or did it? In: cnn.com . March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  7. ^ Islamists devastate museum in Mosul . In: faz.net . February 26, 2015. Accessed February 27, 2015.
  8. ^ Christopher Jones: Assessing the Damage at the Mosul Museum, Part 1: The Assyrian Artifacts . In: gatesofniniveh.wordpress.com. February 27, 2015. Accessed March 2, 2015.
  9. ^ Christopher Jones: Assessing the Damage at the Mosul Museum, Part 2: The Sculptures from Hatra . In: gatesofniniveh.wordpress.com. March 3, 2015. Accessed March 5, 2015.
  10. ↑ IS smashes works of art. UNESCO calls for a crisis meeting ( memento of February 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: tagesschau.de . February 26, 2015. Accessed February 27, 2015.
  11. ↑ http://archaeologik.blogspot.de/2015/03/cyberarchaologie-im- Resistance- gegen-is.html Cyberarchäologie in the resistance against IS. Archeology (March 14, 2015)
  12. ↑ Iraqi forces retake government HQ, museum in Mosul . In: dailymail.co.uk . March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  13. ↑ Kawa Omar: Inside devastating ruins of Mosul museum: Looted and vandalized . In: news.com.au. March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.

Coordinates: 36 ° 20 ′ 16.3 "  N , 43 ° 8 ′ 21.8"  E