Rehabilitating Iraq’s Memory: The Mosul Museum

Sarah Hugounenq

Sarah Hugounenq is a specialist in cultural economy and diplomacy, and heritage policy. For the past ten years, she has written for various publications, including Le Quotidien de l’art, La Gazette Drouot, Le Point, Télérama, Les Echos, and Radio France. She was a student of art history and museology at the Ecole du Louvre, and now, as a specialist of patronage, she teaches museum and monument management in several academic institutions.

With its shaky shots and sloppy framing, the video is far from professional. What it recounts, however, is less an act of amateurism than of full-scale looting. Determined and brazen, the soldiers of lost memory proudly attack statues, friezes, and other pre-Islamic treasures from Nimrud and Hatra, pillaging Parthian and Assyrian masterpieces with their bare hands, bludgeoning their own past to pieces. This occurred in Mosul, in the heart of the plain of ancient Nineveh, in February 2015, under the roof of Iraq’s second richest museum. Visibly riled up by the force of these testimonials to a history much greater than themselves, this punitive expedition was equipped with heavy artillery, jackhammers, and explosives. Pillaged, then used as headquarters for a period, this showcase for Iraqi history was transformed into an inferno: 27,000 books, including 2,500 incunabula, went up in smoke, to say nothing of the architectural damage.

“We have proposed a workplan all the way to the reopening of the museum and we hope that this meticulous work will bring about the rebirth of this remarkable establishment. Despite the enormous damage that is has suffered, we want to show that by pooling our expertise, and that with work, time and money, nothing is ever impossible.”

Ariane Thomas, Curator of the Mesopotamian collections at the Musée du Louvre

Created in response to the massive destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East, ALIPH seized on the project of the rehabilitation of the Mosul Museum in 2018, at the request of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), in partnership with the Musée du Louvre (Paris) and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington). “The priority was on proposing urgent measures to secure the building and collection: stabilizing the floors and gaping roofs that had been struck by bombs, covering the windows with plastic, installing doors, storing works of art to protect against looting, and more. It was necessary to act quickly to save as much as possible,” recalls Corine Wegener, a former U.S. army soldier who now heads the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. While ALIPH is specialized in quick and efficient intervention, the scope of the damage called for a well-considered and ordered action plan. “This project bears the complexity entailed by a long-term commitment,” says Rosalie Gonzalez, its project manager at ALIPH. “To establish a rigorous methodology, and realistic forms of action given the difficulty of the field, we turned the damage assessment into a comprehensive one-year initial phase.” The Smithsonian focuses in particular on the structural study and the building’s stabilization, sending engineers to the site. The Musée du Louvre, in coordination with teams from the Mosul Museum, is concerned with the collections: conducting inventories, sorting, identifying, and documenting the state of each fragment, comparing inventories (those that didn’t burn up) to determine which works were destroyed, damaged, or stolen, then storing them pending a decision on their future. On the floors blanketed with ruins dating back several millennia, the task is akin to putting together a giant puzzle. “It’s an appalling tragedy,” laments Ariane Thomas, curator of the Mesopotamian collections at the Musée du Louvre.

Duly noted. The results are positive: the building and a part of the collections have been able to be saved, and the Museum has taken giant steps forward (construction of a new storeroom in Nineveh, training programs for local teams, etc.). By developing a plan and through analysis, these different partners gained valuable time, growing acquainted with a site lacking in everything, from worktables to cramped offices with fickle electricity, where the resurgence of jihadist groups since the 2017 liberation of Mosul has paralyzed staff movements.

The infrequent army convoys operating in the city are limited to four or six people, including armed staff. On the premises, the discovery of explosives on the roof and landmines in the Old City made it necessary to call on the army prior to any further action. “In this type of context, you appreciate the role of an organization such as ALIPH, specialized in conflict areas,” Wegener affirms. “They know and grasp the complexities of the field, the uncertainty, the need for flexibility, accompanying us in our mission through their impact in the political and diplomatic spheres.” By bringing together actors who are not always accustomed to collaborating – experts respectively from the cultural, diplomatic, development, and defense fields – ALIPH shows that it is more than a mere financing body. Its fundamental mission to coordinate illustrates the extent to which the rehabilitation of a museum is a multiform project. “Museums are the mirrors of a civilization,” explains Zaid Ghazi Saadallah, director of the Mosul Museum. “They offer the possibility of studying, research, enjoyment. They embody the civilization of a country to tourists, help revive bonds with its past, foster a sense of rootedness. Without them, nations would have no future. For all of these reasons, it is vital to rehabilitate our museum.” In a wounded country, reconstruction will also be achieved through cultural pride – an element more essential than is often thought.

“Museums are the mirrors of a civilization.”

Zaid Ghazi Saadallah, Director of the Mosul Museum

NB: Since this article was published, the consortium formed by the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), the Musée du Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution and ALIPH, welcomed a new member: World Monuments Fund, in charge of the rehabilitation of the museum building. The Smithsonian has continued its staff training program, and the Musée du Louvre has continued its artifact restoration activities, including an online training course in conservation for museum staff. ALIPH is funding this next phase of the museum’s rehabilitation.