Lost To The Ages

PATRICK ROBERT/CORBIS FOR TIME
TRASHED: A storeroom at the Iraq Museum looked more like a garbage dump after looters went through it

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And the people of Iraq evidently care about them quite a bit. By the end of last week, some of the looters had repented and returned artifacts to the museum. Even in the middle of war, after decades of brutalization by Saddam Hussein's regime, ordinary Iraqis have a fierce pride in their nation's history. Mazen Ahmad, 64, who sells eggs a few blocks from the Iraq Museum, says he has never been inside, but he takes the loss very personally. "Our history was in that building. It was the soul of Iraq," he says. "If the museum doesn't recover the looted treasures, I will feel like a part of my own soul has been stolen."