Surprise discoveries
Having persuaded museum staff to allow me access to the five on-site storerooms, we all had something of a surprise. Three were still locked, and looked untouched. The remaining two had been entered, with one not even having been locked. These storerooms were generally not ransacked, but clearly some items had been stolen. It seems that the thieves knew where the most precious objects were, and had made straight for them.
'The precision of the thieves' actions suggests either that they were professional criminals, or that the thefts were to some degree an inside job.'
The precision of the thieves' actions suggests either that they were professional criminals, or that the thefts were to some degree an inside job. Keys had obviously been obtained - whether stolen, handed over under duress, or being used by renegade staff - because they were found in the storerooms. The story of the thousands of gold and silver Greek, Roman and Muslim coins is incredible - they were kept in locked cabinets in a storeroom, and the thieves seem to have obtained keys, and made straight for them. However, it seems the keys were dropped and lost, and the coin collection remains intact. The keys were found - near the cabinets - by US investigators.
The unlocked storeroom held an equally strange secret - the parts of a machine gun, a hand grenade and a box containing an Iraqi rocket-propelled-grenade were found there. Clearly during the battle for the museum this storeroom - with its high level slit-windows opening on to the street - had been used as a fighting position. How had the Iraqi soldiers got in - did the museum staff let them in? It's not clear, but certainly this use of a storeroom compromised the museum's status as a cultural building.
This discovery does seem to confirm the account of the fight for the museum given by US troops who had been engaged in the action. Rather than being a neutral cultural complex, they found it to be a well fortified fighting position manned by around 150 Iraqis, including the Republican Guard. The US tanks had been fired on from the museum and had returned fire. It was because the museum had been used as a strong point in the battle for that quarter of the city that guards were not posted around it immediately.
Published: 2003-06-09
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