Donny George | Iraqi archaeologist, 60

Donny George, 60, an Iraqi archaeologist who confronted looters ransacking the Iraq National Museum after the U.S. invasion of 2003, then led efforts to recover thousands of stolen artifacts in the ensuing years, died March 11 in Toronto.

His friend Gwendolen Cates said he had a heart attack at the Toronto airport.

Mr. George fled Iraq in 2006 because of threats to his family. He was also angry that Iraq's post-invasion politicians seemed interested mainly in archaeology pertaining to the Islamic conquest in the seventh century and its aftermath.

His passions were the older civilizations of the Sumerians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians. He directed a major excavation of Babylon.

Mr. George was director of research for the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage when U.S. troops and their allies invaded Iraq. He fought through blocked bridges, explosions, and troops to report to the museum in the chaotic days afterward, finding he could not persuade U.S. troops to protect it because no order had been issued to do so.

An estimated 15,000 artifacts were stolen. He and Col. Matthew Bogdanos of the Marines worked together to investigate the thefts, recovering half of the stolen artifacts, partly by granting looters amnesty.

Mr. George soon became head of the museum, then chairman of the antiquities board, replacing a cousin of Saddam Hussein's. He slowly put the museum back together.

Elizabeth Stone, an anthropology professor at Stony Brook University in New York, said Mr. George's success in rising to the top of Iraq's archaeological establishment was remarkable because he was Christian in the mostly Muslim country.

He fled Iraq, however, after receiving an envelope containing a Kalashnikov bullet and a letter accusing his younger son of disrespecting Islam and threatening his life. - N.Y. Times News Service