The Monument of Saving Iraqi Culture is a statue built in 2010 by Iraqi artist and sculptor Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, located on the Karkh side of Baghdad, in the Mansour area near Al-Zawra Park and Park.
The monument is a broken and falling stone cylindrical column representing Iraqi culture, and there is a group of hands and arms surrounding it to express their attempt to support it so that it does not fall (that is, so that the culture does not fall, and symbols are written on it and written in cuneiform script meaning (from here the writing began).
In 2010, the Mayor of Baghdad, the Sheikh of the sculptors, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, was commissioned to complete a series of four projects, as part of Baghdad's cultural program. The artist has begun work on four new sculptures that will be erected in different locations in the capital Baghdad. However, this will be his last project, as the sculptor died before completion. The artist's son oversaw the completion of the project. The four works blended Iraqi tradition with modern art.
The first to complete these four projects was the Magic Lantern which opened in 2011. The three surviving works, Baghdad poems, a fountain written in Arabic calligraphy; Baghdad Monument A column depicting the city as a beautiful girl dressed in traditional Abbasid dress. The Cultural Rescue Monument, a Sumerian cylindrical seal in the hands of an Iraqi citizen, was all inaugurated in 2013.
Muhammad Ghani Hikmat is best known for his public works, which are now on display in all corners of the capital Baghdad, as well as for the smaller statues carved in wood, depicting the daily life of the people of Baghdad. Among his most famous works are statues of Queen Scheherazade and King Shahryar, located on the banks of the Tigris River near Abu Nawas Street, and the Kahramana monument on Saadoun Street in Baghdad. The choice of the location of his works was important for the artist, who wanted the sculptures to be accessible to everyone. He avoided squares and parks, but instead wanted to place his business on the streets and on the sides of buildings.
