Exhibit to focus on Iraq looting

We are planning an exhibit on the ongoing looting of sites in Iraq that will open in the Oriental Institute next April 10, the 5th anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum. Although the special exhibit gallery at the OI is of modest size, we hope that the exhibit will significantly increase public awareness of the issue. We have contacted a number of interested scholars, and wanted to make sure this announcement went out to a broad audience to invite your suggestion and commment.

The curators of the exhibit will be McGuire Gibson and Katharyn Hanson. Our planning for the exhibit is in its early stages, but we are considering five themes:

--looting of sites (perhaps 5-10 photographs showing progressive looting over time)

--the importance of context (illustration from the OI's excavations, perhaps one of the Diyala sites)

--looted artifacts (we are hoping to get some pieces that have been seized and are now in the US, including fakes)

--an update on the looting of the museum (perhaps 5 more photographs)

--what is currently being done

Other possible topics include the art market, antiquities law, and military destruction of sites in Iraq.

Please pass this note along to anyone you think may be interested.

Thanks.

Geoff Emberling
Museum Director
Oriental Institute