At least 8,000 treasures looted from Iraq still missing

From today's Independent:

Evidence of how quickly and irretrievably a country can be stripped of its cultural heritage came with the Iraq war in 2003.

The latest figures, presented to the art crime conference yesterday by John Curtis of the British Museum, suggested that half of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. And of at least 15,000 items looted from its storerooms, about 8,000 have yet to be traced.

Yet another tragedy associated with this war. The damage extends far beyond this, too, as many historic sites have been irreperably harmed by the occupation and the ensuing chaos in country, a point that Curtis made in a complementary report for the British Museum.

The issue of looting, you might recall, was a hot button topic following the invasion when conservative commentators ganged up on the initial reports of its magnitude. It's painful to go back and read what they said back then.