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Baghdad Museum Reopens After 6 Years Reclaiming Its Stuff

After six years and the looting of over 14,000 priceless pieces, the Baghdad Museum has reopened with a red carpet gala and the requisite security for visitors. Not that we advise you to plan a trip there anytime soon, but there have got to be some roving war reporters out there looking for new ways to pass a lazy weekend afternoon.

Surprisingly, prior to the museum's restoration and reopening, 8,500 of the 15,000+ stolen items were recovered and are now either under lock and key in the vaults or under constant watch as the first few visitors cautiously peer into cases. According to the AP, there is still wariness over the 2003 looting of the museum and for now, "the museum — which holds artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods — will be open to the public starting Tuesday but only for organized tours."

No doubt there will be signs at the entrance banning the carrying of chisels, so leave your Tombraider fantasties at home. For the opening gala, however, all the good stuff was dusted off and displayed as a show of renewed stability, including two small winged bulls and statues from the Assyrian and Babylonian periods more than 2,000 years ago, considered to be amongst the most valuable items in the museum collection. With all the hype around the reopening, we feel pretty bad for that Italian tourist who made the risky trip into Iraq a few weeks too late to hit up the museum; maybe next time, buddy.

Related Stories
· Baghdad Museum Reopens 6 Years After Looting [AP]
· Restored Baghdad Museum reopens with most of its greatest treasures [Guardian UK]
· Italian Tourist in Falluja Shows How Extreme Travel is Done [Jaunted]
· Iraq Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP]