MENA – “France’s famous Louvre is supporting Iraqi museum employees. Iraq’s once-celebrated Mosul museum and its 2,500-year-old treasures – left in ruins by extremists – are being given a second chance thanks to restoration efforts backed by French experts. Iraq’s once-celebrated Mosul museum and its 2,500-year-old treasures – left in ruins by extremists – are being given a second chance thanks to restoration efforts backed by French experts. Ancient artefacts in the museum were smashed to pieces when ISIS fighters seized the northern city of Mosul in 2014 and made it their seat of power for three years. “We must separate all the fragments. It’s like a puzzle, you try to retrieve the pieces that tell the same story,” said restoration worker Daniel Ibled, commissioned by France’s famous Louvre museum, which is supporting Iraqi museum employees. “Little by little, you manage to recreate the full set.”  ISIS fighters filmed themselves taking hammers to pre-Islamic treasures they deemed heretical, proudly advertising their rampage in a video published in February 2015. The largest and heaviest artefacts were destroyed for the sake of their propaganda, but smaller pieces were sold on black markets all over the world. The scars of their destruction remain today. On the ground floor of the museum, the twisted iron bars of the foundation poke through a gaping hole. In other rooms, stones of various sizes are scattered, some bearing etchings of animal paws or wings. Others show inscriptions in cuneiform script. The smallest of these fragments, no bigger than a fist, are lined up on a table, and experts are hard at work sorting through them. For now, their efforts are focused on a winged lion from the city of Nimrud, jewel of the Assyrian empire, two “lamassu” – winged bulls with human heads – and the base of the throne of King Ashurnasirpal II…”