It was an emotional moment for sculptor Daniel Ibled and the Louvre's director of eastern antiquities Ariane Thomas when they first stepped into the ruins of Iraq’s Mosul Museum.
The nation’s second-largest museum was ravaged by ISIS in 2014 as the extremists attempted to eradicate thousands of years of history by destroying the building and its contents.
On entering what remained of Mosul Museum, the pair knew he was about to face his biggest challenge yet.
“We were together when we first saw the damage,” Ibled told The National. “It was very sad to see what had happened and how quickly it had taken to do such damage compared to how long it will take to repair.
“The pieces were completely intact and magnificent and despite surviving for more than 2,500 years all of a sudden in a few minutes they had been destroyed. It was like a scene of war, you had all the exploded fragments all over the place.
When Iraq regained Mosul, the restoration of its heritage became a priority.
The Louvre in Paris has global expertise in restoring similar artefacts and was one of the first international teams to offer help and support to the museum in Iraq.
Along with the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, the Smithsonian Institution, Iraqi authorities and the World Monuments Fund, the team began the daunting task of painstaking restoration.
Ibled said: “It is definitely one of the most complicated and biggest things I have ever done.”
The contents of the Mosul Museum were of cultural importance and pivotal to Iraq’s history," he said.
Mosul faces the 6,000-year-old archaeological site of Nineveh, the heart of the Assyrian Empire, and at one point it was the largest city in the world for several decades.
Its museum had housed treasures from the Assyrian, Hellenistic and Islamic periods and the Louvre experts have been focusing their efforts on a winged lion from the city of Nimrud, two winged bulls with human heads and the base of the throne of King Ashurnasirpal II.
When the Louvre team entered the museum at Mosul, all that remained from artefacts thousands of years old was a sea of fragments.
Ms Thomas told The National: “It was so terrible to see such damage. The pieces were so old and while they had survived more than 2,500 years, all of a sudden in a few minutes they had been destroyed.
“The Louvre was in charge of setting up a diagnosis and action plan in order to see everything that needed to be done from the state of destruction that we found.
“We still are in charge of the collections, there is enormous work in terms of restoration and Daniel, our hero restorer, is restoring the almost totally destroyed pieces. Among them, many are monumental in size.
“Many museums across the world have never faced such destruction before," she said. "At the same time, we are doing the conservation work which requires an enormous team. We need huge tools and expertise and we are lucky at the Louvre to have quite a lot of knowledge as we have collections that are similar and pose similar problems and we had the expertise of Daniel that we could bring.”
Faced with a giant jigsaw of exploded pieces, it is now Ibled’s painstaking task to restore them.
“It was like an archaeological excavation,” he said.
“We had to separate all the fragments. Everything had to be referenced to know what it was so we could classify it and sort it and store it safely into boxes to do the conservation work.
“It is very complicated. I worked on the destroyed pieces in the national museum in Kabul and both have been very challenging. In Mosul it is made it even more challenging because I am dealing with Assyrian sculptures that were heavily monumental. They are very large and very heavy and some of the fragments are still damaged from the explosion. They are very difficult to move and to work with.
“This makes it even more challenging.”
The team has been piecing together the Assyrian throne and the lion statues.
“For the throne basis we have 85 per cent of the original monument,” Ibled said. "For the missing parts it will be an Iraqi decision whether or not to replace them with modern pieces or keep it as a damaged section.
“The throne base is flat so we don’t have many structural issues but we will have with the lion. If the missing part is structural, then we will need to replace it with a modern piece.”
Online videos bridge gap between Iraq and France during pandemic
The complex project was made even more demanding by the Covid-19 outbreak, which prevented Ibled from travelling to the site.
Instead, the international teams came up with a novel idea of making step-by-step videos to send to the Iraqi team on the ground so they could begin the work.
“We were supposed to start the conservation work by early 2020 but Covid-19 happened,” Ms Thomas said.
“We didn’t want to lose time ... it’s very important that every day we move a little step closer towards restoration, so we adapted by developing an online training programme with short videos in order to communicate and to keep working with our colleagues in Iraq."
The Louvre director said this approach meant preparation for the heavy restoration work could be done together, bridging the gap between Iraq and France.
"Finally, in 2021 that happened," she told The National. "We started to be able to go to Mosul and carry out regular conservation work with them. Now we have made spectacular progress, which Daniel and his team can be very proud of. The destroyed pieces are finally taking shape again.”
The UAE has funded some of the restoration work. “It’s a real honour that we are able to help,” Ms Thomas said. “I hope something like this will never happen again but the fact that we can help our colleagues is magnificent.
“It is a very heavy responsibility because now we must do our very best so we do not betray these objects which are part of their history. They are the direct links to the past that has completely disappeared. We must try to make them live again, we must continue to be the doctors.“
Mosul University’s Theatre Hall reopens after ISIS destruction - in pictures
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Zayed Sustainability Prize
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Sukuk explained
Sukuk are Sharia-compliant financial certificates issued by governments, corporates and other entities. While as an asset class they resemble conventional bonds, there are some significant differences. As interest is prohibited under Sharia, sukuk must contain an underlying transaction, for example a leaseback agreement, and the income that is paid to investors is generated by the underlying asset. Investors must also be prepared to share in both the profits and losses of an enterprise. Nevertheless, sukuk are similar to conventional bonds in that they provide regular payments, and are considered less risky than equities. Most investors would not buy sukuk directly due to high minimum subscriptions, but invest via funds.
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
WWE TLC results
Asuka won the SmackDown Women's title in a TLC triple threat with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair
Dean Ambrose won the Intercontinental title against Seth Rollins
Daniel Bryan retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against AJ Styles
Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax
Rey Mysterio beat Randy Orton in a chairs match
Finn Balor defeated Drew McIntyre
Natalya beat Ruby Riott in a tables match
Braun Strowman beat Baron Corbin in a TLC match
Sheamus and Cesaro retained the SmackDown Tag Titles against The Usos and New Day
R-Truth and Carmella won the Mixed Match Challenge by beating Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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Tips for newlyweds to better manage finances
All couples are unique and have to create a financial blueprint that is most suitable for their relationship, says Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at Century Financial. He offers his top five tips for couples to better manage their finances.
Discuss your assets and debts: When married, it’s important to understand each other’s personal financial situation. It’s necessary to know upfront what each party brings to the table, as debts and assets affect spending habits and joint loan qualifications. Discussing all aspects of their finances as a couple prevents anyone from being blindsided later.
Decide on the financial/saving goals: Spouses should independently list their top goals and share their lists with one another to shape a joint plan. Writing down clear goals will help them determine how much to save each month, how much to put aside for short-term goals, and how they will reach their long-term financial goals.
Set a budget: A budget can keep the couple be mindful of their income and expenses. With a monthly budget, couples will know exactly how much they can spend in a category each month, how much they have to work with and what spending areas need to be evaluated.
Decide who manages what: When it comes to handling finances, it’s a good idea to decide who manages what. For example, one person might take on the day-to-day bills, while the other tackles long-term investments and retirement plans.
Money date nights: Talking about money should be a healthy, ongoing conversation and couples should not wait for something to go wrong. They should set time aside every month to talk about future financial decisions and see the progress they’ve made together towards accomplishing their goals.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Year Earth Changed
Directed by:Tom Beard
Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
Stars: 4
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What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: seven-speed PDK dual clutch automatic
Power: 375bhp
Torque: 520Nm
Price: Dh332,800
On sale: now
The Al Barzakh Festival takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at 7.30pm in the Red Theatre, NYUAD, Saadiyat Island. Tickets cost Dh105 for adults from platinumlist.net
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
