The war in Iraq has raised urgent questions about the future of the nation's museums, monuments and archeological digs. Often called a cradle of Western civilization, Iraq has been home to great civilizations -- Mesopotamia, Sumer, Babylon and Persia -- and their history is entrenched in the region's cultural heritage.
But even as art historians and archeologists are warning against the possible destruction and looting of important sites, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is preparing for a landmark exhibition of historic art and artifacts from the region that includes present-day Iraq. Objects in "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353" and the museum's rich permanent collections give a visceral sense of what might be lost in the war. The exhibition, featuring 200 works from collections around the world, will be on view at the museum from April 13 through July 27.
The show is billed as the first to explore the artistic and cultural achievements in the Iranian world -- a vast swath of territory including modern Iran and Iraq -- after the Mongol invasions. Silk textiles, glazed ceramics, jewelry, gold and silver objects, handmade books and carvings of stone and wood illuminate a period of cultural flowering.
This might seem to be the worst possible moment to present a splashy exhibition from a distant land where American military forces are doing battle. Not so, says Linda Komaroff, LACMA's curator of Islamic art, who organized the show with Stefano Carboni, her counterpart at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
"If any other exhibition were opening at LACMA, it would probably not be a good time because it would be hard to compete," Komaroff says. "This happens to be a subject matter that -- unfortunately, because we don't want there to be a war -- ties in with the news."
The world situation means that places where some of the art was created have become familiar to Americans. And there is generally more public interest in the culture and art of Iraq and its neighboring countries, she says.
None of this played a role in the conception or development of the exhibition. Komaroff began planning it six years ago. She and Carboni secured loans of artworks long before the World Trade Center was attacked and before President Bush cited Iraq, in his State of the Union address in January 2002, as part of the axis of evil.
