Cultural heritage

Protection of cultural heritage or protection of cultural goods means all measures to protect cultural property against damage, destruction, theft, embezzlement or other loss. The term “monument protection” is also used for immovable cultural property. This relates in particular to the prevention of robbery digs at archaeological sites, the looting or destruction of cultural sites and the theft of works of art from churches and museums all over the world and basically measures regarding the conservation and general access to our common cultural heritage. Legal protection of cultural heritage comprises a number of international agreements and national laws, and these must also be implemented.[9][10][11][12][13]

There is a close partnership between Blue Shield International, the UN, United Nations peacekeeping, UNESCO and the International Committee of the Red Cross.[8][14] In many armies, such as the Austrian Armed Forces (Theresian Military Academy), there are extensive protection programs and cultural heritage protection is part of the training.[15][16] Essentially, the armed forces and conflicting parties are generally prohibited from using cultural heritage, its immediate surroundings and the facilities intended for its protection for military (paramilitary) purposes, and in particular exposing cultural property to destruction or damage in the event of an armed conflict.

Karl von Habsburg, on a Blue Shield International fact-finding mission in Libya

There have been examples of respect for the cultural assets of enemies since ancient times. The roots of today's legal situation for the explicit protection of cultural heritage also lie in some of Austria's ruler Maria Theresa (1717 - 1780) decided Regulations and the demands of the Congress of Vienna (1814/15) not to remove works of art from their place of origin in the war.[17] The process continued at the end of the 19th century when, in 1874 (in Brussels), at least a draft international agreement on the laws and customs of war was agreed. 25 years later, in 1899, an international peace conference was held in the Netherlands on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, with the aim of revising the declaration (which was never ratified) and adopting a convention. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 also significantly advanced international law and laid down the principle of the immunity of cultural property. Three decades later, in 1935, the preamble to the Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions (Roerich Pact) was formulated. On the initiative of UNESCO, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was signed in 1954.[18]

The protection of the cultural heritage should also preserve the particularly sensitive cultural memory, the growing cultural diversity and the economic basis of a state, a municipality or a region. Whereby there is also a connection between cultural user disruption or cultural heritage and the cause of flight. But only through the fundamental cooperation, including the military units and the planning staff, with the locals can the protection of world heritage sites, archaeological finds, exhibits and archaeological sites from destruction, looting and robbery be implemented sustainably. The founding president of Blue Shield International Karl von Habsburg summed it up with the words: “Without the local community and without the local participants, that would be completely impossible”.[19][20][21][22]

Objects are a part of the study of human history because they provide a concrete basis for ideas, and can validate them. Their preservation demonstrates a recognition of the necessity of the past and of the things that tell its story.[23] In The Past is a Foreign Country, David Lowenthal observes that preserved objects also validate memories. While digital acquisition techniques can provide a technological solution that is able to acquire the shape and the appearance of artifacts with an unprecedented precision[24] in human history, the actuality of the object, as opposed to a reproduction, draws people in and gives them a literal way of touching the past. This unfortunately poses a danger as places and things are damaged by the hands of tourists, the light required to display them, and other risks of making an object known and available. The reality of this risk reinforces the fact that all artifacts are in a constant state of chemical transformation, so that what is considered to be preserved is actually changing – it is never as it once was.[25] Similarly changing is the value each generation may place on the past and on the artifacts that link it to the past.

Kautilya Society in Varanasi - When heritage protection becomes a fight for legality and participation → "They harass me because I demand civil society participation to public policies and I contrast the misuse of privileges"

Classical civilizations, and especially the Indian, have attributed supreme importance to the preservation of tradition. Its central idea was that social institutions, scientific knowledge and technological applications need to use a "heritage" as a "resource".[26] Using contemporary language, we could say that ancient Indians considered, as social resources, both economic assets (like natural resources and their exploitation structure) and factors promoting social integration (like institutions for the preservation of knowledge and for the maintenance of civil order).[27] Ethics considered that what had been inherited should not be consumed, but should be handed over, possibly enriched, to successive generations. This was a moral imperative for all, except in the final life stage of sannyasa.

What one generation considers "cultural heritage" may be rejected by the next generation, only to be revived by a subsequent generation.

Plaque stating the designation of Carthage as a World Heritage Site.

Significant was the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage that was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. As of 2011, there are 936 World Heritage Sites: 725 cultural, 183 natural, and 28 mixed properties, in 153 countries. Each of these sites is considered important to the international community.

The underwater cultural heritage is protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This convention is a legal instrument helping states parties to improve the protection of their underwater cultural heritage.[28][29]

In addition, UNESCO has begun designating masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights sitting as part of the United Nations Economic and Social Council with article 15 of its Covenant had sought to instill the principles under which cultural heritage is protected as part of a basic human right.

Key international documents and bodies include:

• Athens Charter, 1931
• Roerich Pact, 1935
• Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, 1954, (with a definition of cultural heritage item adopted by some national law)
• Venice Charter, 1964
• Barcelona Charter, 2002 (regarding maritime vessel preservation)
• ICOMOS
• The Blue Shield, a network of committees of dedicated individuals across the world that is “committed to the protection of the world’s cultural property, and is concerned with the protection of cultural and natural heritage, tangible and intangible, in the event of armed conflict, natural- or human-made disaster.”
• International Institute for Conservation

Rediscovery of the Muisca Indigenous Heritage
El redescubrimiento de la tradición indígena

Youth and Heritage in Syria
Passing on traditional values

Much of heritage preservation work is done at the national, regional, or local levels of society. Various national and regional regimes include:

• Australia:

Burra Charter

Heritage Overlay in Victoria, Australia

• Brazil:

National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage

• Canada

Heritage conservation in Canada

• Chile

National Monuments Council (Chile)

• China

State Administration of Cultural Heritage

• Egypt

Supreme Council of Antiquities

• Estonia

Ministry of Culture (Estonia)

National Heritage Board (Estonia)[30]

• Ghana

Ghana’s material cultural heritage

• Honduras

Secretary of State for Culture, Arts and Sports

• Hong Kong

Heritage conservation in Hong Kong

• India

Ministry of Culture (India)

National Archives of India

Archaeological Survey of India

Anthropological Survey of India

Culture of India

National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology

List of World Heritage Sites in India

Indian Heritage Cities Network, Mysore

Heritage structures in Hyderabad

• Iran

Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization

• Japan

Cultural Properties of Japan

• Kenya

Monuments

• Macedonia

Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments

• Malaysia

The National Heritage Act

• Namibia

National Heritage Council of Namibia

National Monuments Council

• New Zealand

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

• Pakistan

Lahore Museum of Art and Cultural History

Lok Virsa Heritage Museum

National Museum of Pakistan

Pakistan Monument and Heritage Museum

• Philippines

National Commission for Culture and the Arts

National Historical Commission of the Philippines

• Poland

National Ossoliński Institute[31]

• South Africa

South African Heritage Resources Agency

Provincial heritage resources authorities

Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali

Heritage Western Cape

Northern Cape Heritage Resources Authority

National Monuments Council

Historical Monuments Commission

• United Kingdom

Conservation in the United Kingdom

English Heritage

English Heritage Archive

National Trust

• United States of America

National Register of Historic Places

• Zimbabwe

National Monuments of Zimbabwe

Emblem used to clearly identify cultural property under protection of the Hague Convention of 1954, regarding cultural property during armed conflicts.

Broad philosophical, technical, and political issues and dimensions of cultural heritage include:

• Cultural heritage repatriation
• Cultural heritage management
• Cultural property law
• Heritage tourism
• Virtual heritage

Issues in cultural heritage management include:

• Exhibition of cultural heritage objects
• Objects conservator
• Radiography of cultural objects
• Storage of cultural heritage objects

Through digitisation a range of values can be created relating to documentation, preservation, research, education, commercialisation, engagement, etc.[32]

• Antiquarian
• Architectural Heritage
• Collecting
• Heritage film
• International Council on Monuments and Sites
• Values (heritage)

• Michael Falser. Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. From Decay to Recovery. Heidelberg, New York: Springer (2015), ISBN 978-3-319-13638-7.
• Michael Falser, Monica Juneja (eds.). 'Archaeologizing' Heritage? Transcultural Entanglements between Local Social Practices and Global Virtual Realities. Heidelberg, New York: Springer (2013), ISBN 978-3-642-35870-8.
• Ann Marie Sullivan, Cultural Heritage & New Media: A Future for the Past, 15 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 604 (2016) https://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=ripl
• Barbara T. Hoffman, Art and cultural heritage: law, policy, and practice, Cambridge University Press, 2006
• Leila A. Amineddoleh, "Protecting Cultural Heritage by Strictly Scrutinizing Museum Acquisitions," Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2467100
• Paolo Davide Farah, Riccardo Tremolada, Desirability of Commodification of Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Unsatisfying Role of IPRs, in TRANSNATIONAL DISPUTE MANAGEMENT, Special Issues “The New Frontiers of Cultural Law: Intangible Heritage Disputes”, Volume 11, Issue 2, March 2014, ISSN 1875-4120 Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2472339
• Paolo Davide Farah, Riccardo Tremolada, Intellectual Property Rights, Human Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage, Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Issue 2, Part I, June 2014, ISSN 0035-614X, Giuffrè, pp. 21–47. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2472388
• Nora Lafi, Building and Destroying Authenticity in Aleppo: Heritage between Conservation, Transformation, Destruction, and Re-Invention in Christoph Bernhardt, Martin Sabrow, Achim Saupe. Gebaute Geschichte. Historische Authentizität im Stadtraum, Wallstein, pp.206-228, 2017
• Dallen J. Timothy and Gyan P. Nyaupane, Cultural heritage and tourism in the developing world : a regional perspective, Taylor & Francis, 2009
• Peter Probst, "Osogbo and the Art of Heritage: Monuments, Deities, and Money", Indiana University Press, 2011
• Constantine Sandis (ed.), Cultural Heritage Ethics: Between Theory and Practice, Open Book Publishers, 2014
• Zuckermann, Ghil'ad et al., ENGAGING - A Guide to Interacting Respectfully and Reciprocally with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, and their Arts Practices and Intellectual Property, Australian Government: Indigenous Culture Support, 2015
• Walters, Diana; Laven, Daniel; Davis, Peter (2017). Heritage & Peacebuilding. Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 9781783272167.
• Kocój E., Między mainstremem a undergroundem. Dziedzictwo regionalne w kulturze europejskiej – odkrywanie znaczeń, [w:] Dziedzictwo kulturowe w regionach europejskich. Odkrywanie, ochrona i (re)interpretacja, Seria wydawnicza:, Studia nad dziedzictwem i pamięcią kulturową“, tom I, Kraków 2019, red. Ewa Kocój, Tomasz Kosiek, Joanna Szulborska-Łukaszewicz, pp. 10–35.
• Dziedzictwo kulturowe w regionach europejskich. Odkrywanie, ochrona i (re)interpretacja, Seria wydawnicza:, Studia nad dziedzictwem i pamięcią kulturową“, tom I, red. Ewa Kocój, Tomasz Kosiek, Joanna Szulborska-Łukaszewicz, Kraków 2019, p. 300.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cultural heritage.

• Cultural heritage policy - history and resources Getty Museum - list of major international cultural heritage documents, charters, and treaties
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Official website of the United Nations cultural heritage body
• International Council on Monuments and Sites
• International Council of Museums
• International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property
• Inventory of Heritage Organisations in Europe (English, French, German and Dutch language)
• International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
• Cultural routes and landscapes, a common heritage of Europe (English and French language)
• EPOCH – European Research Network on Excellence in Processing Open Cultural Heritage
• Cultural heritage search engine
• Peace Palace Library - Research Guide
• National Council for Preservation Education
• Cultural heritage travel guide from Wikivoyage