with their American counterparts, re- porting on Hitler’s relentless advance and the looting that was taking place. Horrified by the desecration going on in Europe, George L. Stout, head of conservation at the Fogg Museum of Fine Art at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., began to push for American inter- vention. He and his colleagues were convinced the war would be devas- tating for Europe’s art, and it was imperative to act quickly to save as many treasures as possible. “They believed fervently that if the U.S. didn’t take the appropriate action in advance, the consequences would be to destroy so much of Western civilization that it would forever be a stain on the nation and the Ameri- can military,” says Edsel.
The mission begins Fogg Museum associate director Paul Sachs and other prominent art figures began compiling lists of major European artworks in prepa- ration for what they hoped would be an official rescue and protection program. Finally, in the summer of 1943, the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artis- tic and Historic Monuments in War Areas — better known as the Rob- erts Commission — was established. Its Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program was the realization of Stout’s dream — but a monumental (no pun intended) task lay at hand.
“[In] the beginning, there were only 20 or 30 people involved: mu- seum directors, writers, artists, historians, architects, librarians — representing all the different special- ties in the cultural arts,” says Edsel. “It was an unlikely group; most of them had established careers and families, and many were in their mid-40s. They didn’t have to go and put themselves in harm’s way, but they did it
[CONTINUES ON PAGE 83] PHOTOS: ABOVE, CORBIS; TOP, GETTY IMAGES JUNE 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 61
A soldier guards the Iraq National Museum. (below) No stranger to looting, the mu- seum has recovered some art.
On the Trail of Treasures
When U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad, Iraq, in April 2003, Republican Guard soldiers set up defensive positions inside the Iraq Museum, in violation of the dictates of the Hague Convention. When they abandoned the muse- um April 10, the facility remained unprotected for a crucial time period of 36 hours. In that time, looters stole nearly 14,000 valuable antiquities, some of which later were used to fund the budding insurgency. Hearing of the incident, Marine Corps Reserve Lt. Col. Matthew Bogdanos (now re- tired), an amateur art enthusiast, formed a team to investigate. At the museum compound, chaos reigned. Most of the display cases
were empty, trash was scattered everywhere, and some of the most famous works of Mideast antiquity were missing.
Bogdanos immediately an-
nounced an amnesty program, and soon some of the artifacts began to trickle back in. Others were re- covered in raids, and some were seized after being shipped over- seas. Almost 10 years later, the search continues. In his book The Thieves of Bagh- dad (Blooms- bury, 2005), in which Bogdanos asks why no unit was tasked with protecting the museum, he re- counts the story.
“Frankly, those who have ar- gued that U.S. forces should have done more to protect the museum present a compelling argument,” he says.
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