Google Announces Plan in Baghdad to Put Iraqi Artifacts Online

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, announced that his company would create a virtual copy of Iraq's National Museum's collections at its own expense, and make images of four millenniums of archaeological treasures available online, free, by early next year. The museum, badly looted during the American invasion, has been declared reopened three times: in 2003, by the American occupation authorities, again in 2007 by Iraqi officials and most recently in February by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. None of those openings, however, involved letting the public back in. A few invited scholars, journalists and the occasional school group have been allowed to visit. Only 8 of the museum's 26 galleries have been restored; most of the collection's treasures are in secret storage.