Scars of looting, destruction all that remain at Mosul museum

More evidence, if any were needed that it is not good sense to keep all of our global heritage in one place (Livingston Contributor, "Scars of looting,destruction all that remain at Mosul museum " Livingston Ledger December 15, 2019 )

After two and a half years under Islamic State control, all that is left in Mosul‘s museum are the traces of looting and destruction. Inside the rubble-strewn building, where militants filmed themselves destroying ancient artifacts, the large stone wing of a statue of lamassu — an Assyrian winged bull deity — lies on the dusty floor among other broken remnants of the past. A block engraved with Arabic Islamic calligraphy lies close by, and some Islamic manuscripts have been left undamaged. But almost everything else has gone. [...]  Dozens of Assyrian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Persian and Roman artifacts that the ransacked museum held have all been stolen or damaged. [...]  Islamic State militants filmed themselves smashing some of the building‘s contents including priceless statues with sledgehammers in 2015, as part of their highly publicised campaign to erase any cultural history that contravenes their extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam.