An American report reveals a "corruption deal" between the Ministry of Culture and the "Hobby Lobby"

The information / translation ...
A report by the American Daily Beast newspaper revealed, on Thursday, a "corruption deal" between the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the American Hobby Lobby Company and the Bible Museum in the United States to return more than 1500 artifacts from the Sumer, Babylon and Assyrian tablets to the country.
The report, which was translated by Al-Maaloumah, stated that “the draft agreement that the newspaper reviewed between the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities and the Bible Museum, which is the second party to the robber Hubei Lobby, includes returning a program of $ 15 million to help enhance the institutional, technical and human resources of the sector's capabilities. Archeology in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], And bear the costs of transporting them in exchange for the approval of the Iraqi Ministry to loan some of the panels for a period of up to five years, and to allow the process of searching and publishing the archaeological discoveries and not to sue the robbery company or the museum's donors about anything that has happened at all until this moment, indicating “to be very clear, If [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] signs this memorandum as it was originally written, they will forfeit their legal rights to compensation.
He added that, according to experts, “many parts of the agreement are just basic things that the Bible Museum and the Hubei Lobby Company, which is owned by the Green family, must do to comply with the law, yet in return it requires [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] lend valuable parts of its cultural heritage to the museum,” according to Dr. Zainab. Bahrani is professor of art history and archeology at Columbia University
She indicated that “the Hubei Lobby Company should return the looted antiquities and it is not obligated to send loans to them to their museum as part of the deal, or allow them to preserve the objects, and give up any future challenge to the objects in their collection. Why would anyone in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] agree to that? "I do not see any benefit for this memorandum of understanding at all for Iraq, or for the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Museum or the Antiquities Authority."
She pointed out that “the amount of 15 million that will be granted to the company is not sufficient, and that the training courses for the employees of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Museum raise the question whether they are the right people for the job? Emphasizing that “this company and its museum are involved in the illegal trade in antiquities, and that the scientists associated with it have participated in destructive practices of ancient artifacts.”
For her part, Professor of Art Crime at John Jay College, Ariel Tombion said, “If this agreement is signed, the Hobby Lobby and its Museum should issue a press release saying that they are donating $ 15 million to protect Iraqi antiquities, but there is no specific timeframe ... The agreement does not specify Who gets the money, [and] under this wording, they can pay US consultants to train the Iraqi museum’s staff, for example, with none of that money going to the Iraqis, and all the money can be spent financing visas and paying travel and meal expenses for US consultants. The Iraqis will get nothing. "
She noted, “$ 15 million may seem a large sum, but it is not in fact the case. We will never know the extent of the damage caused by the looting of Iraqi archaeological sites that have been done to produce the thousands of artifacts that Hubei Lobby bought, but I am confident that this damage is for Iraq and the world. It was much bigger. From 15 million dollars. ”
It is noteworthy that Steve Green, CEO of Hobby Lobby, ignored in his statement mentioning the Gilgamesh dream board, which is a missing part of the famous epic that was confiscated in 2019 by the Department of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Investigation or that it is required of him by law. End / 25 z