Thieves of Baghdad : one marine's passion for ancient civilizations and the journey to recover the world's greatest stolen treasures

Thieves of Baghdad is a riveting account of Colonel Matthew Bogdanos and his team's extraordinary efforts to recover over 5,000 priceless antiquities stolen from the Iraqi National Museum after the fall of Baghdad. A mixture of police procedural, treasure hunt, war-time thriller, and cold-eyed assessment of the international black market in stolen art, Thieves of Baghdad also explores the soul of a truly remarkable a soldier, a father, and a passionate, dedicated scholar. Matthew Bogdanos has been an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan since 1988-where New York tabloids call him "pit bull" for his relentless prosecution of criminals such as the 15-year-old "Baby-Faced Butchers" for their 1997 grisly Central Park murder and rappers Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Jamal "Shyne" Barrows for their 1999 shootout. A colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, middleweight boxer, and native New Yorker, he was raised waiting tables in his family's Greek restaurant in lower Manhattan and holds a classics degree from Bucknell University, a law degree and a master's degree in classics from Columbia University, and a master's degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marines in 1980, he served as a Judge Advocate until he left active duty to join the District Attorney's Office, rising to Senior Homicide Trial Counsel in 1996. Recalled to active duty after losing his apartment near the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he joined a multi-agency task force in Afghanistan and received a Bronze Star for counterterrorist operations against al-Qaeda. He then served in Iraq and the Horn of Africa as the head of that task force and received a 2005 National Humanities Medal from President George Bush for his work recovering Iraq's priceless treasures. He has returned to the DA's Office where he still boxes for the New York City Police Department Widows & Orphans Charity and continues the hunt for stolen antiqu
He's a spit-and-polish Marine, a competitive boxer, a classics scholar, and an assistant DA in Manhattan. New York tabloids call him "pit bull" for his relentless prosecution of high-profile defendants like Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and the "baby-faced butchers" of Central Park. When Baghdad fell, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos was in southern Iraq, tracking down terrorist networks through their financing and weapons smuggling--until he heard about the looting of the museum. Immediately setting out across the desert with an elite group chosen from his multiagency task force, he risked his career and his life in pursuit of Iraq's most priceless treasures.
Thieves of Baghdad takes you from his family's flight to safety at Ground Zero on 9/11, to his mission to hunt down al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and into the war-torn streets of Baghdad on the trail of antiquities. Colorful characters and double-dealing are the norm as Bogdanos tries to sort out what really happened during the chaos of war. We see his team going on raids and negotiating recoveries, blowing open safes and mingling in the marketplaces, and tracking down leads from Zurich and Amman to Lyons, London, and New York. In an investigation that led to the recovery of more than 5,000 priceless objects, complex threads intertwine, and the suspense mounts as the team works to locate the most sensational treasure of all, the treasure of Nimrud, a collection of gold jewelry and precious stones often called "Iraq's Crown Jewels."
A mixture of police procedural, treasure hunt, wartime thriller, and cold-eyed assessment of the connection between the antiquities trade and weapons smuggling, Thieves of Baghdad exposes sordid truths about the international art and antiquities market. It also explores the soul of a man who is equal parts hardened Marine, dedicated father, and passionate scholar. Most of all, it demonstrates that, in a culture as old as that of the Middle East, nothing is ever quite what it seems. War, Military, History, Iraq, Stolen Treasure Front Cover 1 Praise for Thieves of Baghdad 2 ALSO BY WILLIAM PATRICK 5 Front Page 6 Copyright 7 Dedication 8 CONTENTS 9 AUTHOR'S NOTE 10 1 IN MEDIAS RES 11 2 PATTERN RECOGNITION 23 3 HECTOR'S GHOST 34 4 A VISIT TO THE UNDERWORLD 45 5 MOBILIZATION 60 6 THE IRRATIONAL TENTH 75 7 EXFILTRATION AND INFILTRATION 96 8 BABYLON 120 9 LIFE AMONG THE RUINS 138 10 KEEPING HEADS 181 11 BEWARE THE RABBIT IN A RAGE 212 12 OF HAMMERED GOLD 228 13 WHAT DOES MILITARY DUTY LOOK LIKE? 254 14 IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PRICE 273 15 WHATEVER REMAINS 295 AFTERWORD 310 NOTES 320 WORKS CITED 339 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 342 GLOSSARY 343 Rear Cover 346 madmaxau Relates the events that led up to the investigation and recovery of stolen artifacts in Baghdad, offering a look at the underbelly of the international art and antiquities market. Marine and former assistant DA Matthew Bogdanos tracks down ancient and priceless treasures stolen from the Iraq Museum during the 2003 American invasion