Babylon, damaged by Bush’s troops, exhibited in Paris

This video is about the ancient Babylonian Ishtar Gate.

From Associated Press:

Babylon treasures show at Louvre, but some pieces missing

PARIS – The ancient city of Babylon, in what is now Iraq, gets a thorough exploration in a new show at the Louvre, with treasures borrowed from galleries around the world. All that’s missing is the obvious: artifacts on loan from Baghdad’s museum.

The Louvre says it had hoped the National Museum in Baghdad could contribute to the exhibit, «Babylon,» which opens Friday, but the plan failed. Baghdad’s security situation is still too perilous to allow for the transport of priceless treasures to the airport and the flight out.

«How can these objects travel; who would insure them?» asked curator Beatrice Andre-Salvini.

The Baghdad museum, remember, was looted immediately after Bush’s invasion of Baghdad; with Bush’s then Secretary of ‘Defence’ Donald Rumsfeld saying “Stuff happens” about the looting. And still much more looting came after that.

The Louvre exhibit runs until June 2, then goes to Berlin’s Pergamon Museum from June 26 to Oct. 5. It will be at the British Museum from Nov. 13 to March 15, 2009.

The British Museum’s exhibit, which will take a different form, will include video and photography documenting damage to Babylon’s archaeological site by U.S. and Polish troops that were stationed nearby. Experts say heavy vehicles were driven across the site, and pieces of ancient ruins ended up in sandbags.

Iraqi and world culture officials are still struggling to document the exact extent of the damage during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath.

Some of the artifacts stolen from Baghdad’s museum by looters during the invasion have been recovered or returned. Between 3,000 to 7,000 pieces are still believed missing, said Laurent Levi-Strauss, chief of the section of museums and cultural obje[c]ts at U.N. cultural body UNESCO.