Planned pillage

Submitted by Rosalind Fischl (United States), Apr 23, 2003 at 03:21

In your assessment of responsibility for the damage wreaked upon the musem and library in Baghdad, you omitted to mention the speculation about it being a staged affair to camouflage the opportunism by covert collectors of antiquities.

The items taken seem by all reports to have been specifically targeted, with knowledge of their value, and the records deliberately destroyed so that the booty cannot be easily recognised from catalogues. It smacks of a well planned pillage by sinister elements who will stop at nothing to add to their fabulous collections.

Already there are reports of items being offered on the art market. This is not the work of ordinary looters, it appears.

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