Saddam never could catch a break

From the article:

Nor did Mr. Hussein pay much heed to the fact that the archaeological world cried foul -- deriding his project as Disney for a Despot -- because he was violating their sacred principle of preserving rather than recreating.

Also see (from this Guardian article http://archive.today/ODrqa):

I visited the site in November 2004, just as Polish troops were preparing to hand it over to the Iraqi authorities. The late Donny George, then head of the Iraq Museum, had warned me in Baghdad about the terrible damage done to the site by the Polish military. He was aghast at reports of soldiers filling sandbags with earth containing archaeological fragments; of armoured vehicles crushing sixth-century BC bricks on the Processional Way; of looters gouging out pieces of dragons from the Ishtar Gate; of digging, levelling, compacting and gravelling in this ancient city. “It’s mankind’s greatest heritage site,” he said. “You don’t just start digging it up to make more room for your tanks.”