Delegates at the second thematic session of the UNESCO High-level Forum on Museums held in Shenzhen yesterday.  Sun Yuchen

Vince Xie

SZ_DailyVince@163.com

Experts and officials of the world’s top museums discussed the protection of heritage during war and peace time during the second thematic session of the UNESCO High-level Forum on Museums held in Shenzhen yesterday.

Representatives of more than 40 countries gave their penetrating opinions on the current situation of modern museums at the forum.

Markus Hilgert, director of the Pergamon Museum in Germany and also the host of this session, gave a brief opening speech about the importance of protection of cultural heritage and the core mission of modern museums. There are currently about 55,000 museums across the world playing a pivotal role in the protection of heritage.

In global history, cultural and natural heritage is vanishing because of invasion, conflicts, coups and natural disasters. Nowadays, the protection of cultural and natural heritage is faced with more complicated challenges. The spread of terrorism is detrimental to the protection of cultural treasures especially in the Middle East, which has been plagued by wars.

“In my country, the preservation of cultural heritage suffers from endless regional conflicts and perpetual social turbulence, especially in those areas where ISIS occupied,” said Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim, director-general of Antiquities and Museums of Syria.

“Though we’ve been working on the renovation and protection of cultural heritage for years, we still can’t shelter them from being sabotaged by the war,” Abdulkarim said.

War and military conflicts are catastrophes for cultural preservation. Many organizations and museums rescue and preserve cultural relics during social turmoils.

Benoit de Saint-Chamas, director of the office of the president of the Louvre, said, “In World War II, thousands of cultural treasures in France were damaged and looted. After the war, our government put a lot of funds and manpower into the museum system to search for lost and looted relics and spent years rebuilding damaged palaces. ”

During peace time, the protection of cultural heritage is not as easy as we imagine. The protection work must be comprehensive and continuous.

Huo Zhengxin, professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, gave a speech about Chinese cultural heritage protection in peace time from three perspectives: cultural heritage legislation, law enforcement and public awareness of protection.

“China has suffered from invasion during the 19th century and many national treasures were lost, looted, stolen and smuggled. Now the protection of Chinese history has become a national concern. The Chinese Government made detailed plans to preserve domestic artifacts and retrieve overseas ones. More and more people are taking part in the protection process,” said Professor Huo.

“There is still a long way to go. It’s not the time to be optimistic about the preservation of cultural heritage,” Huo commented.

Silvie Memel Kassi, director of the Museum of Civilization of the Republic of Cote d’ivoire, called on delegates to pay more attention to the protection of cultural heritage in West Africa and searched for more international cooperation.

This session provided an opportunity for people from global museums to share their ideas and for countries to enhance mutual understanding and cooperation.

Editor: Jane Chen