Florence, Venice: Unesco opens world campaign
Florence, Venice: Unesco opens world campaign
During the first days of November, Tuscany and Venetia were devastated by floods of extraordinary magnitude and violence. The damage has been enormous. To the toll in human lives and the loss of property were added the destruction, in Florence and Venice, of creations of the human spirit which made the enchantment of the culture and art of living that Italy has given to the world.
In all, 885 works of art of the first importance, eighteen churches and some 10,000 other objects have suffered. Seventy libraries and learned institutions have been stricken. More than 700,000 volumes of archives comprising some 50 million items, of which 10,000 were of inestimable historical and scientific value, have been damaged.
Florence and Venice! The names alone say why Italy's grief is ours. But they indicate also why Italy's resolution to preserve and restore everything that can be saved will be the common purpose of us all. Venice sinking into the waters, it is as if one of the most radiant stars of beauty were suddenly engulfed; Florence bemired, it is the springtime of our hearts which is for ever disfigured. We will not resign ourselves to such disasters.
The General Conference of Unesco, which has just concluded its fourteenth session, has decided unanimously to issue an urgent appeal "to the spirit of fellowship of Member States to assist, to the fullest extent of their means, the efforts of the Italian people and authorities to preserve and restore cultural property that has been or is in danger of being damaged".
In so doing, Unesco in no way wishes to take the place of the aid and co-operation, public and private, which Italy's innumerable friends throughout the world have spontaneously offered and are prepared to furnish directly. The brotherhood of man that the international agencies seek to promote and to organize is nurtured by the living springs of natural and historic friendships between persons and peoples.
But Unesco, called upon by its Constitution to assure "the conservation and protection of the world's inheritance of books, works of art and monuments of history and science" can, as the Italian Government has requested, assemble and distribute information regularly on the needs, on the one hand, and offers of aid on the other. In this way outside assistance may be best directed by stages, in agreement with the Italian authorities, to meet the needs and fit the possibilities of the situation.
Most important, Unesco can stimulate international solidarity and that indeed should be its rôle. Just six years ago, from this very platform, my predecessor launched a pressing appeal to the world to save the monuments of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia which were threatened to be flooded as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Fifty countries responded to that appeal. Today it can be said that the safeguarding of the antiquities of Nubia is accomplished or assured, including the unique monumental ensemble of Abu Simbel. I am sure that once again mankind will not fail to acknowledge and act to save its common heritage, thereby acknowledging again and reaffirming its profound spiritual unity.
René Maheu, Director-General of UNESCO.