Antiquities in hiding
Reporters on the Job: Unlike the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the country鈥檚 second most important museum isn鈥檛 likely to open anytime soon; Mosul is still one of the most dangerous cities in Baghdad.
The Mosul museum director, Muzahim Hussein, lacks security guards so he doesn鈥檛 travel to most sites outside the city. And most of the museum鈥檚 display pieces are in Baghdad for safekeeping or locked in a vault that鈥檚 been welded shut.
Before the war, Dr. Muzahim took me to Nimrud and showed me the royal graves he鈥檇 discovered, which yielded the most spectacular find of gold jewelry since the excavation of King Tut鈥檚 tomb. Now he wanders a near-empty museum, wondering when it might reopen. (Read the Monitor's report here.)
