Press releases

Two damaged sculptural busts from Palmyra, dating to the 2nd or 3rd century AD, were sent home from Rome to Syria on Monday 27 February. After being treated in Italy, the busts were returned to the National Museum of Damascus, accompanied by two representatives of the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM).

On 11 February 2017, the Director General of UNESCO, Mrs Irina Bokova, visited the ICCROM-ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre in Sharjah as part of launch for the #Unite4Heritage campaign in the United Arab Emirates.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, W Stuart Symington, has awarded a grant of $116,000 to launch RE-ORG Nigeria in a partnership between ICCROM, the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments and Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria.

A special symposium on post-conflict reconstruction of historic cities, organized by ICCROM, the Louvre-Lens Museum and the Institut du monde arabe in Tourcoing, was held in Lens, France on 20 – 21 January 2017.

At a time when significant archaeological treasures in the Middle East are threatened by tragic current events, the Louvre-Lens Museum is hosting a special event from 19 – 21 January on the theme of endangered heritage. Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Louvre Museum, will give a lecture on protecting cultural heritage in areas affected by armed conflict. Marie Lavandier, Director of the Louvre-Lens Museum and President of the ICCROM Council, will lead an international symposium on post-conflict reconstruction of historic cities.

In conjunction with the exhibition “History begins in Mesopotamia” on view until 23 January 2017, and in response to current events in the Middle East, the Louvre-Lens Museum and ICCROM, through its ICCROM-ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre in the UAE, are organising a two-day round-table dedicated to the post-conflict reconstruction of historic cities.

The European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS) is a pan-European project aiming to support research on heritage interpretation, preservation, documentation and management. The project will provide state-of-the-art tools and services to interdisciplinary research communities that advance understanding and preservation of global heritage.

Over 200 museum professionals from all over the world have gathered at the Royal Museums of Art and History (KMKG-MRAH) in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the practicalities of reorganizing museum storage and the potentially meaningful outcomes this can bring for communities.

ICCROM has signed a six-year partnership project – World Heritage Leadership – with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, United States. Made possible with generous funding from Norway, the partnership project marks new steps to improve nature-culture conservation practice carried out through the World Heritage Convention, and aims to support the contribution of World Heritage sites to sustainable development.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of ICCROM. In 1956, a mere 11 years after World War II and while many European cities still lay in ruins, the Ninth Session of the UNESCO General Conference in New Delhi decided to create the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).