London: The Islamic State jihadists enraged many earlier in February when they filmed themselves destroying Iraq’s ancient treasures. However, in a surprising twist to their planned massacre, the head of the country’s national antiquities department confirmed they were plaster copies of priceless originals, The Telegraph reported.
On Monday, Fawzye al-Mahdi told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle: “None of the artefacts destroyed in the video is an original.”
Iraq’s ex-leader Saddam Hussein’s tomb in a shambles after clashes between IS militants and Iraqi forces in Tikrit on Monday. (Photo: viaweb)
Curators at the Baghdad Museum studied the video releasd by the militants and found that many of the artefacts that appeared to have been destroyed were in fact safe inside their own museum.
The world looked on in horror in February when Islamic State released a video showing jihadists taking hammers to what appeared to be irreplaceable ancient statues and artefacts. “The statues are worthless to us even if they are worth billions of dollars,” an IS member boasted in the video.
The findings confirmed suspicions voiced by archaeologists when the video was first released.
“You can see iron bars inside the statues,” Mark Altaweel of the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, told Channel 4 News.
“The originals don’t have iron bars.” Atheel Nuafi, the governor of Mosul who had to flee the city when IS seized control of it last year, confirmed that most of the destroyed objects were copies, though he said two were originals.
It is feared the jihadists may have also stolen smaller objects from Mosul Museum and sold them, after seven pieces from the museum’s collection turned up in Germany.
