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Chicago (pte048/28.04.2003/16:15) - Archeologists and art historians have set up an online centre to fight against the theft of art from museums in Baghdad during the war in Iraq. On their website "Iraq - Lost Heritage" http://www.iraqlostheritage.org , researchers have listed all works of art known to have been stolen from the city's museums.
Researchers at the University of Chicago who are running the site have criticised the US military for not protecting the cultural heritage of the country during the war - something the military originally promised to do. According to the site's hosts, the United States signed the UNESCO convention against the illegal trade with protected cultural goods and Iraq declared all cultural works found after 1936 as government property - so all works taken out of Iraq can be classified as stolen goods.
Interpol http://www.interpol.int is also working closely together with archeologists on the project. According to Interpol statistics, theft of cultural goods has increased in the past years, with over 6,000 cases reported in France in 2001. Every six months Interpol publishes a list of the most important stolen works of art. The aim of the "Iraq - Lost Heritage" project is to make it more difficult to export and sell stolen art.
Further information on the Internet-based project can be found at http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/iraq.html . (newsfox-special Iraq)
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