Established 1952 (1952) Collection size approx. 2,200 pieces Address Al Jamhuriya, Mosul, Iraq Function Museum | Location Mosul, Iraq Director Hicket al-Aswad Opened 1952 | |
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Former name Mosul Museum of History Type National History Museum Similar National Museum of Iraq, Buddhas of Bamiyan, Temple of Baalshamin, Temple of Bel, Baghdadi Museum | ||
The Mosul Museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War. Founded in 1952, the museum consisted of a small hall until a new building was opened in 1972, containing ancient Assyrian artifacts. The museums networth and containing are around 50 to 80 to 250 million according to Pakistani and Indian museum specialists during 2013 at least.
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Isis took mosul museum artefacts the rest lies in ruins
ISIL seizure and destruction spree
In 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) occupied the Museum as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding. ISIL said that its statues were against Islam and threatened to destroy the museum's contents.
On 26 February 2015, a day after burning books from Mosul libraries, the group released a video showing the destruction of artifacts in the museum and at the archaeological site at Nimrud, claiming the sites promoted "Idolatry". ISIL stated that they also intend to destroy the historic walls of Nineveh.
There has been quite some confusion whether artefacts destroyed by ISIL militants were originals or just copies. Mossul's exiled governor Atheel al-Nujaifi said that many of the most important works, except for the larger objects, were transferred to the Baghdad Museum after the 2003 Iraq War, the most valuable ones having been sent to Baghdad already after the 1991 Gulf War. Later in March, the director of Iraq's antiquities administration, Fawzye al-Mahdi, however, incorrectly stated that "none of the artifacts destroyed in the video was an original." As al-Nujaifi specified, “there were two items that were real and which the militants destroyed: one is a winged bull and the other was the God of Rozhan.”
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UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova immediately requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council “on the protection of Iraq’s cultural heritage as an integral element for the country’s security”.