Community members gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the looting and destruction of the Iraq Museum. The event took place yesterday evening at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Films and guest speakers, followed by a candlelight vigil, were the activities planned for the event.
The remembrance, put on by the non-profit organization Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE) in collaboration with the Archaeological Legacy Institute, highlighted the destruction the war in Iraq has done to the Iraq Museum, allowing the looting of more than 15,000 objects. Rick Pettigrew, the president and executive director of the Archaeological Legacy Institute and Dominick Vetri, a University law professor, each gave a speech on the loss of cultural heritage.
The loss of cultural artifacts, suggested Vetri, was “humanity’s loss, not just Iraq’s. Antiquities thousands of years old lay shattered on the floor.”
The event aimed to draw attention to the remaining artifacts still missing and what the U.S. could do to help. Vetri spoke of how the looted artifacts were found for sale in Europe and the United States days after being stolen, and that two-thirds of the objects stolen have still not been located.
“We need to figure out a way to stop the hemorrhaging,” Vetri said. “This is a crime against humanity. We found no weapons of mass destruction; instead, we have gotten mass destruction of the antiquities,” said Vetri.
Vetri said that taking action to bar the importing of Iraqi cultural items would prevent more stolen artifacts from leaving the country to be sold illegally. But there needs to be greater education of the public and a more unified effort, he said.
In his speech, Pettigrew said that although the event came together at very short notice, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is very concerned with the preservation of education. It was also said that the loss of the artifacts from the Iraq Museum has resulted in a “loss of culture.”
Debbie Williamson-Smith, public relations coordinator for the museum, is pleased that the last-minute decision was made to hold the event.
“The event seemed like a perfect fit for our museum and we agree with the mission statement of SAFE, ‘Honor our most valuable resource: Our cultural heritage’” Williamson-Smith said.
The vigil was held in conjunction with other cities around the world, including San Francisco, Boston, New York, Vancouver, B.C. and Baghdad, Iraq.