Mosul Cultural Museum Launches Restoration Phase and Exhibition

The Mosul Cultural Museum has inaugurated a new restoration phase and announced an exhibition titled "The Mosul Cultural Museum: From Destruction to Rehabilitation." The rehabilitation project, launched in 2018 after Daesh's 2014 looting, involves an international consortium including the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), Musée du Louvre, Smithsonian Institution, ALIPH, and World Monuments Fund (WMF). During the attack, major Assyrian works were damaged, including a colossal lion from Nimrud, two lamassu figures, the Banquet Stele, and the throne base of King Ashurnasirpal II, along with over 28,000 books and manuscripts. The Louvre is reconstructing three stone sculptures and metal plaques from Balawat, while WMF oversees architectural conservation. The new phase honors original architect Mohamed Makiya, with London-based Donald Insall Associates led by Tanvir Hasan, and garden revival by Dr. Jala Makhzoumi. The museum will display objects saved before the 2003 Iraq War and artifacts from ongoing excavations, preserving a bomb crater in the Assyrian gallery. The exhibition, curated by director Zaid Ghazi Saadallah in partnership with the Louvre and funded by ALIPH, runs from May 12 to June 1 at the Mosul Cultural Museum Royal Hall and online.