Insider's tale of greatest art theft in history

The museum contained such works as this gold helmet.

BAGHDAD - The story of what really happened inside the Iraq Museum when thousands of valuable antiquities were stolen in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 United States invasion has been revealed in a new book.

Written by the chief investigator, it says there were three separate thefts, at least one of which was an inside job, another the work of professionals, and a third the fault of fleeing Iraq military. At least 13,864 objects were stolen, making it the biggest museum heist in history.

But the book reveals that, with an estimated 500,000 objects in the museum and thieves having the run of the place for 36 hours, the wonder is the loss was not far closer to the original, inaccurate, reports of 170,000 items.

And the efforts of Iraqi, US and Italian officials, plus police and customs worldwide, have so far led to the recovery of 5400 items, nearly 700 from inside the US and Britain.

All this is told in Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos who has been described, with only a minimum of hyperbole, as a real-life Indiana Jones.

The Marine and lawyer lost his New York home in the September 11 attacks. Weeks later, he was a Marine Lieutenant-Colonel, on operations in Afghanistan, and thence, by 2003, to southern Iraq.

It was here, on April 18, in Basra, he heard the Iraq Museum had been plundered. Bogdanos - a keen amateur classicist - requested permission to investigate, put a team together, and hurried to Baghdad.

He arrived at the museum compound on April 20. It had been used as a fighting position, Iraq Army uniforms were scattered all around, as were expended rocket-propelled grenades. And, above the centre door to the main building, was a sign saying "Death to all Americans and Zionist pigs".

Saddam's forces had abandoned the museum on April 10. Two days later senior curators returned, chasing off the last of the looters that had numbered 300 to 400 at their height. It was in this window of 36 hours that the thefts occurred.

The first area entered by the US team was the administrative offices where the destruction was "wanton and absolute". But, in the public galleries, the damage was less. Of 451 display cases, only 28 were damaged, but nearly all were empty.

To his relief, Bogdanos learnt their contents had been removed by staff ahead of the invasion. But 40 antiquities - including some of the best, such as the Sacred Vase of Warka, the Mask of Warka, Bassetki Statue and the 8th-century BC ivory Lioness Attacking a Nubian - were stolen. The thieves, says Bogdanos, were "organised and selective".

The above-ground storage rooms told a different story. The looters had swept entire shelves of items into bags, and the result was 3138 missing items, such as jars, vessels and shards.

On May 2, Bogdanos and companions crept down a hidden stairwell and found chaos in the unlit basement storage area. Missing were 4795 cylinder seals, 5542 coins, glass bottles, beads, amulets and jewellery. As Bogdanos wrote: "It is simply inconceivable that this area had been found, breached and entered ... by anyone who did not have an intimate insider's knowledge of the museum."

An amnesty started within two days. Word was put out that anyone returning an item would be asked only one question: "Would you like a cup of tea?"

An Arabic-speaking member of Bogdanos' team was posted on the gate to solicit returns, and the team walked the streets, drank endless cups of tea in cafes, and played backgammon with anyone who looked as if they might know something.

In one, Bogdanos, still a keen amateur boxer at 45, created a diversion by sparring with a local champion while a colleague quizzed an informant.

The response was almost immediate. Bags containing an item would be dropped off; items allegedly taken for "safe-keeping" were brought in by hand; some were left at mosques, others simply handed to a patrolling US soldier.

The Sacred Vase of Warka, after two weeks of negotiation, was returned in June in a car boot, along with 95 other artefacts. All but 101 of the 3138 items stolen from the storage rooms have been recovered, yet at least 8500 pieces are still missing.

About 2000 recoveries were the result of raids, the biggest being at a farmhouse on September 23. Under a foot and a half of dirt in the backyard was the Mask of Warka. In November, two raids on the same day produced the Bassetki Statue, which had been covered in grease and hidden in a cesspit.

More of the stolen items started to be seized abroad, 1395 by the end of 2003. Some 669 were seized in 2003 when four FedEx boxes, addressed to a New York art dealer, were impounded by US Customs.

And Bogdanos? Early next year he will be back at the district attorney's office, conducting investigations into worldwide antiquities trade.

All the royalties from his book are being donated to the Iraq Museum.

- INDEPENDENT