In an article titled: "In Tripoli's museum of antiquity only Gaddafi is lost in revolution", the guardian.co.uk confirms the vandalising of the National Museum in Tripoli:
"At 11.30pm on 20 August 2011, as rebels launched their first attack on the Libyan capital, 20 armed men entered the museum . . . the rebels spotted the colonel's vintage cars and, as elsewhere, wreaked their revenge. The windows of the sky blue Beetle were smashed; thousands of shards of glass now lie on the floor . . . The headlamps are also damaged but the period gearstick, glovebox, running boards, speedometer and steering wheel remain intact. Staff at the museum . . . had no choice but to let the rebels enter. Mustafa Turjman, head of research at the national department of archaeology, said: "It was a revolution – you can't resist . . . But the vandalism was swiftly quelled by a plea . . . Although there is graffiti in places and one broken window, just a cloak and a rifle, used in the Libyan resistance against Italian occupation, were stolen."
Read the full report at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/sep/11/tripoli-museum-antiquity-shattered-gaddafi-image
Short link for the report:
http://gu.com/p/3xz76
