Penn students and attendees from the Philadelphia area virtually packed the Penn Museum’s Rainey Auditorium Wednesday night to learn about the looting and recovery of ancient artifacts in Iraq.
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, the evening’s speaker and author of the book Thieves of Baghdad, heard that the National Museum of Iraq had been looted while serving as a U.S. Marine Colonel in Iraq in 2003. He immediately sought permission to have his team execute an investigation.
“They called it ‘Saddam’s gift shop’ — their words, not mine,” Bogdanos said, describing the locals’ lack of respect of the museum, which had been closed to the public for 23 years.
Items missing included the famous Mask of Warka, the first representation of the human face in stone, treasures of Nimrud that “make King Tut’s tomb look like it came from Wal-mart” and thousands of other priceless Mesopotamian artifacts.
Bogdanos said he and his team stressed an “amnesty policy” to encourage locals to come forward with any items they had taken or information they had. To help build trust, they took off their helmets — which locals believed “sent the wrong message” — and shared the area’s customary tea and games of backgammon, picking up on “the rhythm of the area.”
He described his mission as “not a prosecution” but “an attempt to return to the Iraqi people their priceless heritage.”
Their scheme worked. From April to November of 2003, almost 2,000 items were recovered. To date, over 63,000 have been recovered, he said.
“It is a testament to the Iraqi people” how much was returned, Bogdanos said.
Bogdanos has spoken at Penn before and attended graduate school with the Penn Museum’s current Chief Curator Brian Rose.
“What he has said is very important to all archaeologists,” said Lisa Batt, administrative coordinator for the Museum’s Department of Development.
“It was a great lecture ... Seeing the photos was pretty amazing,” said attendee Sharon Spector, a Penn Museum member who came to the event from Mt. Airy with her husband Ed, who graduated from Penn in 1967.
