I ask these questions out of pure ignorance: How extensive were the looted
Iraqi museum(s) and libraries(s)? Given that Iraq as a country dates only
to the post-WWI era, did these institutions (their contents) exist, in what
now is Iraq, before Iraq was created as a country? How did the holdings of
these institutions compare quality/importance-wise (as much as
quality/importance can be defined in this case) to holdings of
Mesopotamia/other-related material in museums/libraries in the rest of the
Arab/Moslem world and to holdings of museums/libraries, such as the BM and
BL, in Europe and other parts of the world?