There cannot be many literate people left in the world today who have not heard of the appalling looting of the Iraq National Museum earlier this year. This followed the evacuation of the building on April 8 by museum personnel who had been safeguarding the site (in some cases sleeping there) up until that point. What ensued was a nightmare of cultural carnage involving an unknown number of looters who, according to Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos (head of the Joint Inter-Agency Coordination Group investigating the looting of the museum), made off with approximately 13,500 objects.