An important exhibition of ancient art has opened this month at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of the First Cities: Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus was unveiled to reveal the largest display of Mesopotamian art in recent years.

Art of the First Cities surveys work from the early Bronze Age covering the area from Pakistan to the Eastern Mediterranean with a focus on the Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers.

Mesopotamia, often referred to as the Fertile Crescent, is the cradle of civilization, the land in which all civilization began. It holds equal importance to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. This exhibition comes at an especially poignant time, as the war in Iraq has resulted in the looting and destruction of, and the possible permanent loss of civilization’s first artifacts.

Mesopotamian art can be broken down into three sub-categories. These are Sumerian/Akkadian (3500 - 1750 B.C.), Assyrian/Neo-Babylonian (1000 - 539 B.C.), and Persian (539 - 331 B.C.). Art of the First Cities presents works from the third millennium B.C.

This massive exhibition contains approximately 400 works in a variety of media. Among the most prominent of works being shown is the famous Standard of Ur (2600-2400 B.C.) on loan from The British Museum. Ur is the ancient Mesopotamian city that was located in what is now southern Iraq near Nasiriya. The Standard of Ur, a large wooden box-shaped relic, depicts two sides of ancient life, war and peace. The original mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli proves to be perhaps the first depiction of an ancient Sumerian army.

The Standard of Ur

Despite the convenience of timing, First Cities has been in conception since 1997. The exhibition, in progress for over six years and contributed to by 48 cultural institutions from the United States and abroad, truly reflects a great deal of cooperation between countries. Although there is nothing in the exhibition that came directly from Iraq’s National Museum (as one recalls the trade embargo dating back to the last Gulf War), the MET was able to obtain antiquities from many other museums. The Standing Nude Belted Figure was borrowed from the National Museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Syria, Bahrain and the al-Sabah family of Kuwait were also large contributors.

There are many contributors from Western institutions as well. Among the major lenders to the exhibition are The British Museum in London, The Louvre in Paris and The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Most of the pieces on loan come from The British Museum, as it holds the greatest collection of Mesopotamian art.

According to an article in the Art Newspaper, Dr. Tarapor, associate director of exhibitions at the MET, considers her ability to open up relations with other countries “one of the most rewarding aspects of her job”. (All the while holding her breath in hopes that a random remark from Washington does not get in the way of her relations with other cultural institutions).

It seems as though gallery officials have been doing an awful lot of diplomatic work lately. Aside from Dr. Tarapor's success in gaining the cooperation of so many cultural institutions from around the globe, Philippe de Montebello, the director of the Metropolitan Museum, has been at the forefront of efforts to retrieve priceless works of art from Iraq’s National Museum. According to the Post-Gazette, de Montebello has proposed to UNESCO an amnesty for the looters and also a small reward in return for the works. Although it seems absurd to pay the looters for the return of the stolen antiquities, de Montebello told the New Yorker that the thieves “will take the objects that point to them as looters and if there is no compensation, destroy them rather than give themselves in. So amnesty and compensation are absolutely crucial.”

Until the artifacts looted from Iraq’s National Museum can be retrieved, Art of the First Cities offers the world another chance to see a large collection of ancient works in one place.