Iraq Project: the Virtual Museum of Baghdad

The Author relates, in this article, the origin of "Iraq Project: the Virtual Museum of Baghdad", and proposes two projects that was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) which, as part of the humanitarian mission of stabilization and reconstruction in Iraq intended to contribute to the funding of activities and initiatives aimed at the reconstruction and safeguarding as well as the enhancement of the Iraqi cultural heritage. A few days after the entry of the US army into Baghdad, the looting and partial destruction of the exhibits contained in the Iraq Museum occurred. After the Museum was looted, the objects which remained and were still on exhibit in the rooms were gradually removed to the storerooms that were sealed in 2004. Only the exhibits which were impossible to move remained in their original places. Starting off from the assumption that very few people in the world have been fortunate enough to visit the Iraq Museum and that the Museum will probably be closed for a long time, we felt that it was necessary to reconstruct virtually so that the IT visitor could enter, wander through and observe the most important exhibits kept there. At the same time, the Virtual Museum makes it possible to explore and come to know the ancient civilizations and the geographical context in which these arose. The Virtual Museum should facilitate the utilization and understanding of the cultural, historic and scientific artifacts of the Museum without limits of space and time. An analytical presentation is provided that is extremely rich in content, flexible and lends itself to personalization by the user. It offers in addition the advantage of a presentation made possible by instruments for the simplification and narration required for a public of non-specialists.