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    Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
    Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
    Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures

    Written by Matthew Bogdanos

    Narrated by Matthew Bogdanos

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures.

    A blend of treasure hunt, police procedural, war-time thriller, and exposé of the international black-market in stolen art, told in the voice of a truly remarkable man: a soldier, a father, and a scholar.

    The New York tabloids call him ‘the pit bull' for his relentless prosecution of high-profile defendants. He's an assistant D.A., a spit-and-polish Marine, a trigger-puller on counter-terrorist missions to Afghanistan, a competitive boxer—and a dedicated classics scholar. So when Matthew Bogdanos discovered that the Iraq National Museum had been looted during the battle of Baghdad, he immediately embarked on a mission to recover the stolen antiquities. Accompanied by a select group of men, Bogdanos set off across the desert without official sanction, risking his career and his life in pursuit of this priceless international treasure.

    THIEVES OF BAGHDAD immerses the listener into the rich culture, the colorful characters, the double-dealing, and the derring-do, to sort out once and for all what actually happened during the chaos of the Baghdad invasion, exactly how the thefts took place, and how the most notable objects were retrieved. We hear Bogdanos and his team going on raids and negotiating recoveries, blowing open safes, and mingling in the marketplaces—often encountering an assortment of rogues and villains. He gradually earns the trust of Iraqis eager to preserve their cultural heritage—and then stuns the world by unearthing the most sensational treasure of all, The Gold of Nimrud over 1,000 pieces of gold jewelry, precious stones, and ornaments often called "Iraq's Crown Jewels."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateOct 26, 2005
    ISBN9781593978723
    Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion for Ancient Civilizations and the Journey to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
    Author

    Matthew Bogdanos

    Matthew Bogdanos has been an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan since 1988. He holds both a law degree and a master's in classics from Columbia University, as well as a master's in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Recalled to active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps after September 11, 2001, he received a Bronze Star for counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, and served several tours in Iraq. Upon his release from active duty, he will return to the D.A.'s office to head New York's first antiquities task force.

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    Reviews for Thieves of Baghdad

    3.5/5

    33 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It's not until you reach the end of your first draft that you can begin to see how the pieces of your story really fit—or don't fit. That's why they say writing is actually rewriting. God is in the details.Thieves of Baghdad ~Matthew BogdanosI found this book completely fascinating. Col. Matthew Bogdanos holds nothing back as he tells his account of the recovery efforts of thousands of antiquities after the fall of Baghdad from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
    • 3/5
      After 9/11, NYC assistant DA Bogdanos was called up in his capacity as a Marine reservist. He went first to Afghanistan where he helped to establish border security. In the spring of 2003 he went to Iraq. A chance encounter with an angry journalist changed his team’s mission to that of investigating the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Bogdanos and his team used their law enforcement and investigative skills to determine what happened in the museum, create a list of items missing from the museum, identify the individuals or groups most likely responsible for the looting, and recover a good number of the missing artifacts. Bogdanos had a few short months to lead this team before being reassigned to more urgent duties, and he was deeply disappointed that he was unable to recover all of the missing items from the Iraq Museum.In the author’s note, Bogdanos claims that he “doesn’t like people who go to war and write books about themselves,” and that “this book is not about me.” However, it mostly is about him, or at least about his interests. Bogdanos had a classical education in addition to his law studies and military service, so news of looted antiquities hit him in a sensitive spot. Few people outside of archaeological circles would be as passionate as he is about these antiquities, and this book seems to be an attempt to persuade his audience of the importance of continuing the effort to recover the stolen antiquities and of providing adequate human resources and funding to complete the task. It will be a hard sell since it’s higher up Maslow’s pyramid than food, shelter, health, security, economic stability, and education.
    • 4/5
      Written by the equivalent of a very well-read eagle Scout, giving a half-time football speech, on acid. Sometimes rite, sometimes over-the-top. The narrative covers a very short segment of the story. I would have liked to have heard more of this remarkable story, ie, about recovery of these treasures. An extra half star for an amazing subject.
    • 4/5
      This was an eye-opening overview of the "situation" at the Iraq Museum after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, from an insider's perspective. The detail of the museum's heirarchy, its collections and the looting which occured there was overwhelming and made for a fascinating read.The only thing keeping this book from scoring higher in my review was the fact that it wasn't JUST about the museum. In hindsite, this book was equal parts nonfiction analysis of the museum, its artifacts and their theft AND biography of Matthew Bodganos, the marine responsible for coordinating the recovery efforts and (apparently) single handedly forcing the entire US Governmental System to recognize his need to do so.Don't get me wrong, Bogdanos is an incredible individual. If you doubt me, just read this book, and he'll tell you ALL about himself. I almost gave up on the book because after the initial chapter served to lock me in to what promised to be a great treatise on archaeology/art theft/museum (mis)management the book drifted back to the making of the marine. And this guy is no ordinary marine - he's no ordinary mortal. Marine or not, you do not come across many individuals who quote Cicero before knocking down a door. He was obviously the right person for this job - I just wish he didn't spend the ENTIRE book trying to prove that to the reader. Clearly the man is wiser than I (me???), but I don't need to be reminded of it. It got a little too much when he began quoting people I had never even heard of (or, of whom I had never heard). But, after skimming about 100 pages, I got to the meat of the book - the museum and the looting. And after that, I couldn't put it down. 8:00am presentation? Who cares, I'm up until 2am finishing this book. Because I'm obsessed with LibraryThing, I consistently think about my review as I read the book, and how many stars it will get. After about page 135, this book climbed from a 1 star (something I almost never give) to the 4 stars it ended up with.It really is an enlightening read (in many ways) and Bogdanos really does a better job than anyone else probably could have of putting the situation in Baghdad into perspective and trying to un-politicize an event which was spun every direction depending on your view of ... (fill in the blank).
    • 4/5
      I picked this book up after a glowing review in the USA Today book section and was not disappointed. Bogdanos would seem to be a hugely patriotic guy, as someone who has spent his entire career in the service of the US government in one form or another. But the book doesn't come across as a flag waiving, pound the drum type of novel, which was refreshing. Instead, it's an insightful look at the seedy underworld of stolen antiquities and into what life was like in Baghdad immediately after troops starting pouring over the border.
    • 2/5
      Sometimes interesting, sometimes sanctamonous, sometimes dull, sometimes informative, not a bad read.