Adapting in a global crisis
Once the building was secure, several assessment visits and condition reports were carried out. At the beginning, the coordination of all the partners made it possible to repair the warehouse of the Mosul Cultural Museum and to build and equip a conservation laboratory in Erbil.
However, because of local political instability in the autumn of 2019, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, ongoing work and progress have slowed. The Musée du Louvre and the Smithsonian Institution have nevertheless set up a training programme for the staff of the Mosul Cultural Museum, developing several modules that can be accessed remotely. This unfailing support ensures continuity and follow-up on the actions put in place.
On-site training of professional heritage teams (Smithsonian Institution)
Since 2017, experts from the Smithsonian Institution have developed and led several teaching programmes at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil. This collaboration between Iraqi colleagues and Smithsonian Institution experts has thus enabled the training of cultural and heritage experts.
In 2018, during a meeting in Erbil, Zaid Ghazi Saadallah al-Obeidi and Ali Hazim showed the Smithsonian Institution team images of the Mosul Cultural Museum ransacked and pillaged by Daesh. They saw monumental works of art reduced to thousands of pieces, as well as the ashes of more than 25,000 deliberately burned books and manuscripts.
As a result, the Smithsonian Institution committed to training the Mosul Cultural Museum staff in a number of areas, such as information technology and museum administration. The aim was to develop the resources needed to guarantee a sustainable future for the museum, while generating interest, contributing to the revival of the economy, attracting visitors, and fuelling local commerce.
Distance learning (Musée du Louvre)
At the same that it ensures continuous training for the teams within the Mosul Cultural Museum, the Louvre is setting up a distance training plan for the teams in Mosul.
This remote training plan allows for the continuous dissemination of the expertise needed to restore and manage the works and guarantees the proper renovation of the museum. The Louvre is thus supporting the Iraqi museum teams both on site and remotely, from the restoration of the collections to their reinstallation in the halls.
Following the global health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Iraqi teams were able to complete their distance learning through on-site training by conservators, some of whom had experience in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
