The British Museum and Army are developing plans to save important archaeological sites from looters and assess museums in southern Iraq this year.
The Art Newspaper revealed on February 26, 2008 that the British Army is developing a Cultural Heritage Initiative with the British Museum to save "iconic locations" and museums in southern Iraq. Details of the proposal will be announced in May.
Specialists from the United Kingdom are to come to southeast Iraq to assess the amount of damage done by looters to archaeological sites, especially the ancient Sumerian cities of Warka and Eridu. Satellite imagery reveals considerable illegal digging in the region. In addition, it needs to be determined if the area museums' collections can be returned from the Baghdad Museum to their original homes.
The proposal is spearheaded by Dr. John Curtis, the British Museum's Keeper of the Middle East collections. He hopes to visit Basra with a small contingent of experts later this year and make daily trips to the affected sites.
The British Museum will be hosting Babylon: City of Wonder, a special exhibition of Iraqi artifacts, from November 13, 2008 to March 15, 2009. The show is a slightly different version of Babylon at Paris' Musée du Louvre (March 14-June 2, 2008) and Berlin's Pergamon Museum (June 26-October 5, 2008).
