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The Friends of Basrah Museum (FOBM) is a UK charity (registered charity number 1138771) established in 2010. The charity and the project to help with the establishment of a new museum in Basrah had its origins in meetings in 2007 at the British Museum with Lieutenant General Barney White-Spunner, Neil MacGregor (then British Museum Director) and Dr John Curtis (then Keeper of the Department of the Middle East). The army was involved in the inspection of archaeological sites and the protection and refurbishment of museums within the area occupied by the British Army. Major Hugo Clarke was appointed as manager of the project in April 2008 and Dr Curtis was invited to visit and progress the project.

The original Basrah Antiquities Museum was located in an old house on the Ashar Creek in central Basrah. After 1991 when the museum was looted, the remaining contents were transferred to Baghdad. The building was deemed inadequate to house a new museum and the army identified a palace constructed by Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s called the Lakeside Palace as a potential building. Following consultation with the Director of the Museum Qahtan Alabeed and later after site visits by Dr Curtis and others and with the permissions from the requisite authorities, the Lakeside Palace was agreed on. A workshop to consider the proposal was held at the British Museum in April 2008. Unfortunately, there was a lack of funding and the British army withdrew from the area.

In July 2009 the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Basrah Provincial Council agreed that the Lakeside Palace could be the new museum for Basrah. The FOBM was established as a registered charity under the chairmanship of Sir Terence Clark and a formal launch of the charity and the project took place at the British Museum on 1 December 2010, sponsored by BP. A memorandum of understanding was signed by HE Qais al-Rashid, Chairman of the State Board of Antiquities & Heritage, and Sir Terence Clark with both parties agreeing to collaborate on bringing the new Museum into being. Through a major donation from the BP Foundation and other donors sufficient funds were raised to support much of the building’s renovation and the installation of one gallery – the Basrah Gallery with Museum display cases purchased from Reier in Germany. The Museum opened its Basrah Gallery on 27 September 2016 and a two day international conference sponsored by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) to mark the opening followed.

A large Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) grant was awarded in December 2016 to work on the Completion of the Museum with and the CPF’s formal grant notification letter was sent on 19 January 2017 for the project entitled ‘The Completion of a New Museum for Basrah in Iraq’. The initial grant award was £460,000, which was augmented by an additional grant of £70,600 awarded in September 2017 to cover essential capital preparation work in the museum. The project expiry date is 31 March 2019 for the completion of the project, which supports the installation of museum display cases and the completion of the three remaining galleries along with Museum Training. In the remaining months of the first year of the grant an accelerated EU procurement process was undertaken and Reier was awarded the contract for completing the manufacturing of the museum display cases for the three remaining galleries. In the second year the cases were manufactured and delivered to the Museum in March 2018. The FOBM organised a Museum Training Programme in Basrah in January 2018. Updates on the work of the charity are available on the FOBM website.

The current Trustees are: Sir Terence Clark KBE, CMG, CVO, Dr John Curtis OBE, FBA, Angela Grimshaw, Dr Lamia Al-Gailani Werr, Clare Bebbington, Hugo Clarke, Liane Butcher, and Ian McGregor. Hon. Alice Walpole OBE and Dr Salah Al-Shaikly were among the Founding Trustees and stepped down in December 2016.