THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF IRAQ

**DAVIDE** · June 10, 2009, 04:46 PM

ROME—Treasures from 6,000 years of Mesopotamian history are just a click away, now that Italy has put the National Museum of Iraq online. The Virtual Museum of Iraq, viewable in Arabic, English, and Italian, lets visitors "walk" through eight virtual halls and see works from the prehistoric to the Islamic periods, while video clips reconstruct the history of Iraq’s main cities. Looted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the museum partially reopened in February after six years, but the Web site will make its most important artifacts accessible to everyone. Italy contributed €1 million ($1.4 million) and provided expert staff to help restore the museum, and it also plans to help Iraq create a new police unit to fight trafficking of stolen works. The unit will be modeled on Italy's art cops, renowned for their success in recovering stolen works and stopping illegal trading.

Read more at ANSA.

VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF IRAQ: http://www.virtualmuseumiraq.cnr.it/prehome.htm

**Genius of the Restoration** · June 10, 2009, 06:46 PM

An interesting site. It's sad that it got so extensively looted along with the ancient city sites, but a relief that one country (Italy) saw fit to post police and protect the sites identified with the 'cradle of civilisation'. Interestingly enough, Nazi Germany were much better at this through the Ahnenerbe, although they sought to preserve only things they identified with. Still, the provision of an armed guard for recognised cultural sites by the Italians is welcome. Thanks for the link.

**SigniferOne** · June 10, 2009, 08:44 PM

Wow, amazing.

**Ringeck** · June 11, 2009, 06:30 AM

That's a good presentation.

What would be really interesting was an artifact database with images and details, which is increasingly getting more and more common in the EU; the manuscript people led the charge, but now several museums are getting into it.

**DAVIDE** · June 11, 2009, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Ringeck

That's a good presentation.

What would be really interesting was an artifact database with images and details, which is increasingly getting more and more common in the EU; the manuscript people led the charge, but now several museums are getting into it.

hope this should be done, even for graeco roman things