The Looting of the Iraq Museums: An Examination of Efforts to Protect Universal Cultural Property

Abstract from The Journal of Art Crime, Spring 2010

The looting o f the Iraq Museum's collection of Mesopotamian antiquities in April 2003 led to a flood of criticism directed at the U.S. military for its shortcomings in protecting the museum's holdings in line with provisions posited b y the 1954 Hague Convention. The purpose o f this essay is first to analyze the merits of these accusations. The subsequent aim is t o dissect international conventions preventing the illicit trade of cultural property and how they legally are implemented in the United States, United Kingdom, and Iraq, including examples of blatant resistance by trade constituencies. The final objective i s to evaluate what measures are being taken to rehabilitate the Iraq Museum and how they could be augmented through public awareness programs to ensure the unlikelihood of similar devastations in the future.