Reply #1: No, no, no. The NYT told me only 29 artifacts were missing [View All]

Don

http://www.iht.com/articles/94926.html

Iraq's looted art: The list shortens
Alan Riding/NYT NYT

BAGHDAD Even though many irreplaceable antiquities were looted from the National Museum during the chaotic fall of Baghdad, museum officials and U.S. investigators now say the losses seem to be less severe than originally thought.

Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said he had been given a list by museum officials of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, four ivory objects from the eighth century B.C. have been traced.

"Twenty-five pieces is not the same as 170,000," said Bogdanos, who in civilian life is an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

There is no doubt that major treasures have been stolen. These include a lyre from the Sumerian city of Ur, bearing the gold-encased head of a bull, dated 2400 B.C.; a cast copper mask of an Akkadian king from Nineveh that is more than 4,000 years old; a Sumerian marble head of a woman from Warka dated 3000 B.C.; a white limestone votive bowl with detailed engravings, also from Warka and dated 3000 B.C.; a life-size statue representing King Entemena from Ur, dated 2430 B.C.; a large ivory relief representing the Assyrian god Ashur; and the head of a marble statue of Apollo, which is a Roman copy of a fourth century B.C. Greek original.

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