A comment on the BBC2 documentary referred to below, from Dave Farber's Interesting-People listserve:
It really was a *truly remarkable* programme, and I strongly urge you
and your IPers to see if you can get to see it somehow, perhaps via
PBS.
It was called "Dan Cruickshank and the Raiders of the Lost Art", and
was screened on BBC2 at 9pm on Sunday, 8 June. Don't let the cute
title put you off. This was a one hour long documentary, by a serious
historian, well-experienced in TV presentation, showing day by day
during a return trip to Baghdad just after the war (he'd also made a
trip there a few months before the war) how he gradually came to
understand what must have happened at the Museum, and what sort of
people were (and I fear still are) running it.
Unfortunately I cannot find the programme, or (at least yet) anything
based on it, in the BBC's very comprehensive web-site - though I did
come across a series of articles, by Cruickshank, based on one of his
earlier programs about Afghanistan:
Afghanistan: At the Crossroads of Ancient Civilisations
Once a cultural crossroads, Afghanistan has been ravaged by 22 years
of war and the Taliban regime whose systematic destruction of the
country's cultural heritage culminated in the blowing up of the
Bamiyan Buddhas. Early in 2002, Dan Cruickshank travelled to Kabul to
investigate what treasures remain and find out how Afghanistan's
people have dealt with attempts to destroy their culture and national
identity.
This will give you some idea of Cruickshank's talents.
Cheers
Brian Randell
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle
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