Mosul Museum

The Mosul Museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Founded in 1952, the museum consisted of a small hall until a new building was opened in 1972, containing ancient Assyrian artefacts. Mosul Museum was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War, and was occupied by ISIL in 2014 as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding.

In cooperation with the Government of Iraq and Municipality of Mosul, the Iraqi civil society organisation Al-Ghad, and the Mosul Artists’ Committee hosted in January 2019 the first event in Mosul Museum since the city’s occupation. The art exhibition Return to Mosul brought together artistic voices from across Mosul and Iraq and enhanced them with technology including 3D printing and Virtual Reality experiences. It commissioned and exhibited paintings, photographs and sculpture that told the story of the city’s occupation under ISIL, and articulated a vision of the local community’s hopes for recovery and reconstruction. The exhibition brought together many different ethno-sectarian groups and encouraged them to discuss their vision of a brighter, more tolerant future in Mosul. The exhibition was staged in the newly restored Royal Venue, in the old wing of the museum. (Wikipedia)

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