Fakhri al-Tai and his family live among some 5,000 antiques in Mosul. His home has now turned into a public makeshift museum, aiming to preserve the city’s heritage.
After many artefacts were destroyed during the war against Daesh in Iraq.
“After the liberation of Mosul, I came back to my city, which is Old Mosul. I saw our heritage and civilisation completely destroyed, I saw that they deliberately destroyed this heritage, and I got the idea to collect what I can from our heritage and to revive what they wanted to destroy, revive it for the city.”
His collection includes different pieces from a variety of ethnicities and religions. Kurds, Christians, Muslims, Jews and Turksmans have all made their marks in this small museum.
Visitor Amjad Saleh has lost over 10,000 pictures of his family in the conflict-torn Mosul.
But he was able to find antiques that he grew up with in al-Tai’s home and they reminded him of his life in the 1960s and 70s.
Al-Tai has spent $33,000 USD to fuel his passion.
He also accepts antiques from people who donate them to the museum.