Damage to Syria’s heritage – 14 February 2017

ICOM – International Council of Museums – organised a two-day working meeting in February to talk about practical tools in the identification of trafficked art and heritage. Thanks to the active participation of a select group of experts from INTERPOL HQ, World Customs Organisation, UNESCO, French, Italian and Spanish police forces, NGOs and academia, they were able to clearly identify new areas of development for the ICOM Red List of Cultural Objects at Risk series. Photos of the event are available on Facebook.

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The Authority of Tourism and Protection of Antiquities in al-Jazira Canton has released a report and pictures of restoration work at Tell Beydar, here.

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Chechen authorities have decided to rebuild the mosque and the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, potentially through the controversial Kadyrov Foundation, according to GeoPolmonitor here.

“The Russian Ministry of Culture is preparing an agreement with Hermitage Museum and other cultural institutes to reconstruct monuments damaged by terrorism in Syria, the director of the Russian Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg Mikhail Piotrovsky says. […] Piotrovsky asserted that the recovery of antiquities stolen by terrorist organizations is a ‘matter of honor’. “Palmyra’s antiquities must be restored” “, according to The Syrian Times here.

Italy is restoring two busts from the Palmyra Museum that were damaged by ISIS. The busts – a male and a female – reached Italy after an adventurous journey across borders and checkpoints, thanks to an agreement between Italy’s “Incontro di Civiltà” (Meeting of Civilisations) Association and the Directorate for Antiquities in Damascus. The male bust has damage to the face due to hammer blows inflicted upon it by ISIS, but restorers are preparing a sophisticated 3D print with sintering of nylon powders that will give it back its delicate aristocratic features. The female bust has been restored fragment by fragment, with a veil that covers the head and jewels that hold a cape on the shoulder. The busts were on display at an exhibition at the Colosseum titled “Reborn from Destruction: Ebla, Nimrud, Palmyra” and are now in the hands of the High Institute for Conservation and Restoration (ISCR), which will return them to Syria at the end of the month. Read more in ANSA here.

IKEA has announced plans to sell rugs made by Syrian refugees, according to the Independent here.

Road to Damascus: Australian artist Luke Cornish unveiled Syria-inspired exhibition for SBS News here.

• Ross Burns writes for the IRIS, explaining why cultural heritage monuments in Palmyra and Aleppo have been used as weapons of war here.
• The High Commission for UNHCR, United Nations Refugee Agency, visited Aleppo, and reported back here.
• Article featuring Aleppo Souq by the Aleppo Project, here.
• Reactions to the controversial Damascus colloquium in December are featured in the Yale News here.
• CNBC reports on the challenge of stopping the illegal looting and trafficking of objects from Syrian sites here.
• Syria exhibit tells a rich multicultural history of hope and resilience – The Ismaeli reports on the Syria: a Living History exhibition, here.