THE head of a US panel on cultural property has resigned in protest at the failure of American forces to prevent the looting of the Iraqi National Museum.

“It didn’t have to happen,” Martin Sullivan said of the theft and destruction of artefacts after the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule last week.

Mr Sullivan, who chaired the President’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, said that he had sent a letter of resignation to the White House, in part to make a statement but also because “you can’t speak freely” as a government-appointed employee.

Two other panel members, Gary Vikan and Richard Lanier, have also resigned. Mr Sullivan said: “Our priorities had a big gap. In a pre-emptive war that’s the kind of thing you should have planned for.”

The FBI said that it had sent agents to Iraq to search for antiquities stolen from museums by looters. Robert Mueller, the FBI director, said that agents would assist with criminal investigations and with the recovery of stolen items, and that the agency was cooperating with Interpol.

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