Casualties of war go far beyond the taking of lives. At the Weisman on November 12, former Iraqi National Museum director Dr. Donny George Youkhanna shared the specifics of what his country lost to looting—and stories about what has since been returned—when the United States invaded Baghdad in spring 2003.

He was there, in the crossfire, when helicopters filled the sky and battles broke out in the streets outside the museum. After everyone else fled, Youkhanna and three other non-security staff members chose to stand guard to protect the antiquities inside — and to preserve Iraq’s past. The museum’s collection includes some of the oldest native objects in the world, pieces that have been in the country for over a half-million years.

Youkhanna and his small crew were forced to leave the area and retreated to relatives’ homes. Within days he learned through news reports that the museum had been looted, and since then has counted over 15,000 statues, jewels, masks, and other materials that were taken. Add to that what has been taken from excavation sites over the years, and in total Iraq has lost tens of thousands — or more —pieces of history.

Today the museum has remains closed behind doors sealed with concrete, protected by raised iron fences with tops adorned with rotating knife blades. It’s an art hospital, where extraordinary efforts are taking place to conserve and restore what was lost to damage and theft.

Cori Wegener, called to Iraq as an Army Reservist and now associate curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, participated in a panel discussion after Youkhanna’s talk. Her team strived to identify and catalogue what was missing or damaged and helped organize recovery efforts for lost goods. She continues to help from the Twin Cities as president of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, which was formed in 2006 to protect cultural property worldwide during armed conflict.

Global recovery efforts have brought over 4,000 antiquities back to the museum. Youkhanna shared one story of recovery where two men approached him and admitted that they were in the museum as it was being looted. Shortly after he received word that some recovered articles were being delivered to the museum. Returning five articles were the the same two gentlemen he talked to just before. The men had taken the items to protect what was not rightfully theirs, but owned by their country for all to treasure.