World Monuments Fund mobilizes Iraq aid

NEW YORK, March 22 (UPI) -- The World Monuments Fund of New York is joining with the Getty Conservation Institute of Los Angeles in an international effort to save Iraqi cultural icons.

WMF President Bonnie Burnham said Monday the GCI-WMF Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative has been established with major funding from the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

She said in all areas of the initiative's work it will collaborate with Iraqi officials and coordinate its efforts with Iraqi museums and other cultural institutions.

The initiative already has awarded two emergency grants for site protection, she said. One is to the Massachusetts College of Art for the reinstallation of roofing over the archaeological site at Nineveh, and the other is to the American Association for Research in Baghdad for protection of archaeological sites in central Iraq.

These sites, and many other of Iraq's cultural heritage as the cradle of civilization, have been the target of looting in the aftermath of the 2003 war, and important historic buildings throughout Iraq are still in danger, Burnham said.