A year after the reopening of the national museum in Baghdad, the director general of Unesco hailed the return of cultural life in Iraq. Cultural issues remain important in this country bruised by terrorism in recent years.
Visiting the national museum in Baghdad, the director general of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, emphasized the return of cultural life to Iraq. A year after the reopening of one of the most famous museums in the world, Audrey Azoulay welcomed this return: “It’s a major symbol, because that’s what symbolizes this cultural renewal, being able to reconnect Iraqi families, schools, families who now come here for free.” A visit is all the more symbolic as it comes on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Moreover, as if to recall how Iraqi public services have remained fallow, it was in the dark, during a long blackout, that she finished her press conference and signed the guest book. of the museum, a telling image of Iraq today.
“This heritage, which is multi-millennial, has influenced all the great civilizations and it is precisely what had been attacked, deliberately destroyed during the occupation by Daesh and which had even suffered from decades of conflict before”
Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCOat franceinfo
It is a museum that suffered greatly after the lootings of 2003 and long periods of closure. It was partly destroyed during the first Gulf War, looted in 2003 and has remained closed most of the time since the early 1990s. But the international community has rallied together to give back to Iraq what had been stolen and Unesco played a big role, as Audrey Azoulay explains: “We helped for the reopening of this national museum in Baghdad. We are also helping to recover all these objects, all these cultural assets that have been shamefully looted during these decades.” Audrey Azoulay also proposed sending a mission of experts to help Iraq deal with a “structural crisis”.
Reconstruction
And so today, nearly 10,000 pieces are on display and retrace the history of Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilizations.
The culmination of this return of cultural life to Baghdad has been the free opening of the museum on weekends since the end of February, in order to make this heritage accessible to all, and in particular to families and children. Since 2018, more than 150 million dollars have been invested in favor of Iraq by UNESCO, according to one of its spokespersons.