Another incident. A Chinese auction house owner big $36 million for these two bronze heads which were originally stolen from Empress Qixi when the French and British looted the summer palace in Beijing. Read Stirling Seagrave's book about the reign of The Dragon Lady. This man recognising it is stolen goods will not pay for this. Why should he, when it should be there for all to see in a Beijing museum? It was an awful thing to do, and someone should pay.
Especially when you think the attitude of some people have to lost antiquities.
The Museum in Iraq - once one of the world's leading collections of artifacts spanning the Stone Age, biblical era and the heights of Islamic culture - was nearly gutted in the mayhem after the fall of Saddam Hussein. U.S. troops, the sole power in the city at the time, were intensely criticized for not protecting the museum's collection. In 2003, Eleanor Robson tells us what happened. Up to 7,000 pieces are still missing, including about 40 to 50 considered to be of great historical importance, according to the United Nations cultural body Unesco.
The museum's directors have twice before ostentatiously opened the doors. In July 2003, the American civilian administrator in Iraq at the time, L. Paul Bremer III, toured some displays only weeks after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld dismissed the looting by saying, "Stuff happens." In December 2007, the museum's director allowed a group of journalists and politicians inside for a few hours.
The museum remained shuttered, though, battened down against the violence swirling outside. Not until now has Iraq's government officially declared it a working institution again.
Monday's event itself proved controversial, provoking an unusually pointed dispute between ministries of Maliki's fractious government, each with its own agenda.
On the 23rd February, they reopened the museum.