British Army to recruit 'Monuments Men' a la Clooney film

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Army sign up 'Monument Men' to save treasures from warzones

Expert team to travel to warzones to advise on how locating and saving cultural treasures in echoes of George Clooney film

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George Clooney and Hugh Bonneville in 'The Monuments Men', 2013 Photo: Rex

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By Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent
4:00PM GMT 25 Dec 2015


The Army aims to recruit a ‘Monuments Men’ team of art and archaeology experts to help protect priceless cultural treasures in war zones and choke off terrorist funding from antiquities smuggling.
The specialist unit of up 40 advisers will be staffed by expert reservists with backgrounds in museums, archaeology, the art world or criminal investigations, according to proposals seen by the Telegraph.
The cultural property protection unit will mirror the ‘Monuments Men’ team of British and American art experts who saved priceless European art treasures carried off by the Nazis and were portrayed in a recent George Clooney film.
Specialists will deploy to warzones alongside commanders to advise on how to locate, protect and save cultural riches in the area they are fighting, according to the idea.
The experts could also team up with spy agencies and police to stop the black market smuggling of priceless artefacts which have become a major source of funding for insurgent and terrorist groups.
Both the Afghan and Iraq campaigns saw looting and antiquities smuggling by insurgents and criminal gangs, but the problem has been most dramatically highlighted by the destruction and theft of treasures by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
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The scale of the devastation at ancient sites like Palmyra and Nimrud has led ministers to pledge Britain will finally ratify a 1954 Hague Convention on protecting protect cultural property during military conflict.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The destruction of the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra
Signing the convention obliges Britain’s military to set up “services or specialist personnel whose purpose will be to secure respect for cultural property and to co-operate with the civilian authorities responsible for safeguarding it.”
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003 British officers raised the issue of artefacts being stolen by criminal gangs after numerous items from Saddam Palaces went missing within days of Coalition forces rolling into Basra and Baghdad.
But senior sources said the unit could also fit into a wider plan to cut off funding to groups like Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isil. As well as destroying world-renowned archaeological remains Isil fighters have raided heritage sites and museums in seized territory, and encouraged locals to loot. The pillaged artefacts are then smuggled to unscrupulous dealers through Turkey and Lebanon.
The black market trade has become a lucrative income stream to fund their war machine.
Satellite pictures show hundreds of holes have been sunk into archaeological sites in northern Iraq and looting in the country is now an unprecedented free for all, the International Council of Museums has warned. The trade has been estimated to be worth billions.
Ministers have yet to sign off the new unit, but it is expected to form part of the Army’s new 77 (Chindit) Brigade – which provides specialist “non-lethal effects” units supporting frontline operations.
Recruitment has yet to begin and officers admit the specialist skills needed may be hard to find.
One senior source said: “The unit is part of the wider plan to stop terrorist organisation from funding their operations through looting historical treasures.
“We are aware that coins have sold for huge sums and a very old Christian bible for £600,000. It will take time to recruit the people we need, but we hope the new force will be formed up early next year.”
An Army spokesman said: "Defence is currently scoping the establishment of a new cultural property protection capability.”

Good 
And bad same time 

Great idea, but gosh, how terrible that it's still needed.  What is the world coming to?

Katiedot wrote:Great idea, but gosh, how terrible that it's still needed.  What is the world coming to?

Yeah, Katie!
I always think we've come far from these dangerous opinions - and then find out that terrible things are happening again and again...
I'm very concerned with the uprising very right wing political parties in Europe (and if you are listening to Donald Trump's statements in the U.S. as well). I like the idea of a wide political party spectrum but to suggest that people aren't as intelligent as your own race or that people just leave their own countries because they are looking for a better life is horrible. And even worse that many people agree with their opinions...
I'm just happy that we don't have elections for our government (Bundestag) at the moment so our government is able to continue with their work without having to compromise.
But I guessvwe also have to realize that everything we do has a global impact. No matter if it's a political or an economic decision, we're not the only people who live on this planet, there are about 7.4 billion others who might be influenced by this as well.