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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iraq Briefly Opens Looted Museum
Aired July 03, 2003 - 06:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's the "awe" without the "shock." Iraq's museum is open for business, at least temporarily. It may have been looted, but there are treasures still, eye-popping, beautiful treasures. Want to see?
Let's go live to Iraq and Jane Arraf.
Jane -- you got a chance to go inside that museum.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: We did, Carol, but after its brief exposure to the spotlight of these treasures of Nimrod, the gates, as you can see, are now closed again. The museum is shutting. They're very concerned about security obviously. They have to get those treasures back in the bank vaults, and this morning there was an explosion very near here. That's the reason this museum is not really opening.
But it did open for two hours just to show the press and officials that this collection still exists. It's intact.
And the collection is the gold jewelry of an Assyrian queen. It's 3,000 years old, and it was buried with her and possibly two other queens. It's an amazing collection, not only because of its pounds and pounds of gold. For instance, one of the anklets is almost a pound itself. It's pure, solid gold. It's amazingly intricate. The workmanship there, gold beading and mesh almost is unbelievable for that time. And it really hadn't been known that the Assyrians, who were not only this war-like nation, could create something so intricate. It's really cast a lot of light on that civilization.
Now, as for the find itself, this is an amazing mystery story. It was discovered almost by accident by an Iraqi archeologist in Nimrod, the ancient Assyrian capital, in the late 1980s, exhibited once and very quickly put back into safekeeping just before the '91 Gulf War. It has only been seen once since now. Some of these pieces have never been seen before.
And it wasn't really known whether they were still safe in the bank vault until that vault was opened about a month ago. The Central Bank was looted, it was flooded, and only until they opened up those doors after pumping out all of the water did they see that it was still intact. And it was here today, again briefly, but they do hope to reopen this museum when security warrants, perhaps in a few months -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jane, thanks for the peek at those treasures. We appreciate it. Jane Arraf reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired July 3, 2003 - 06:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's the "awe" without the "shock." Iraq's museum is open for business, at least temporarily. It may have been looted, but there are treasures still, eye-popping, beautiful treasures. Want to see?
Let's go live to Iraq and Jane Arraf.
Jane -- you got a chance to go inside that museum.
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: We did, Carol, but after its brief exposure to the spotlight of these treasures of Nimrod, the gates, as you can see, are now closed again. The museum is shutting. They're very concerned about security obviously. They have to get those treasures back in the bank vaults, and this morning there was an explosion very near here. That's the reason this museum is not really opening.
But it did open for two hours just to show the press and officials that this collection still exists. It's intact.
And the collection is the gold jewelry of an Assyrian queen. It's 3,000 years old, and it was buried with her and possibly two other queens. It's an amazing collection, not only because of its pounds and pounds of gold. For instance, one of the anklets is almost a pound itself. It's pure, solid gold. It's amazingly intricate. The workmanship there, gold beading and mesh almost is unbelievable for that time. And it really hadn't been known that the Assyrians, who were not only this war-like nation, could create something so intricate. It's really cast a lot of light on that civilization.
Now, as for the find itself, this is an amazing mystery story. It was discovered almost by accident by an Iraqi archeologist in Nimrod, the ancient Assyrian capital, in the late 1980s, exhibited once and very quickly put back into safekeeping just before the '91 Gulf War. It has only been seen once since now. Some of these pieces have never been seen before.
And it wasn't really known whether they were still safe in the bank vault until that vault was opened about a month ago. The Central Bank was looted, it was flooded, and only until they opened up those doors after pumping out all of the water did they see that it was still intact. And it was here today, again briefly, but they do hope to reopen this museum when security warrants, perhaps in a few months -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jane, thanks for the peek at those treasures. We appreciate it. Jane Arraf reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
