News: Cultural First Aid
May 2008
MAASTRICHT—"Imagine that you are responsible for cultural heritage, and all hell breaks loose." These were the opening words spoken by Louk de la Rive Box, Chair of the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) Steering Committee. The setting: A press conference on March 7 during The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The mission: To increase awareness and spur volunteerism and funding for CER, a little-known non-profit organization set up in 2003 and sustained by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.The late prince established the initiative following the destruction of the National Museum in Baghdad, after he realized that no entity was in place to stabilize these structures and prevent further damage. "CER is used when no other funds are available," explained his son, Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands, the Honorary Chair of the Prince Claus Fund (his mother is Queen Beatrix). Whether the destruction is caused by war or by nature, CER decides within 24 hours if aid can be sent, and attempts to complete immediate work within 30 days to repair structural damage and prevent further harm.
Prince Constantijn said that some people have questioned the appropriateness of investing in culture while people are dying, but he emphasized the point that CER works alongside the emergency groups that come in to care for victims. He elucidated the reasons why restoring cultural landmarks is critical to the recovery of residents: "First and probably most essential is that working to save a central monument or building with cultural and social value to the community greatly helps recovery after a crisis," he said. "Cultural heritage represents—in a way that nothing else does—a community’s link with its past, its collective memory and identity. Beside alleviating direct humanitarian needs, it is important to rebuild the social fiber of the community, in which a mosque, synagogue, church or other key building plays a central role. Saving such a site means much more than just saving local, national or world heritage. It gives hope and consolation to stricken communities, and can help to restore their sense of identity and community.
"Second: the destruction of cultural heritage is perceived as a fundamental loss. Creating and preserving cultural heritage is essential for the development of a country’s cultural history, [giving] individuals and societies a raison d’être. It confers respect and identity."
All the resources of the Prince Claus Fund are poured into the restoration of structures that are meaningful to a community. Only one person is employed full-time; the rest are volunteers. De la Rive Box explained the CER Torchbearer program, in which an individual or company pledges the base amount of €10,000 to the initiative. The Centre Ceramique in Maastricht was recognized as the first Dutch organization to support the CER.
The closing portion of the press conference was an interview with special guest Omara Khan Massoudi, Director of the National Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan, conducted by art historian and TEFAF board member Michel Witmer. Massoudi braved the dangers of his museum’s bombing and subsequent looting in 2003 by personally saving the most important items in the collection. Over the next three years, he and other staff members secreted objects in safe places and disguised others, through bitterly cold winters without heat or electricity. Then, always under threat from the Taliban, they moved some 22,000 pieces to the city center. Approximately 70 percent of the artifacts were looted and sold on the black market. Some of the items rescued by Massoudi and his staff were featured in the exhibition "Hidden Afghanistan" at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, which ran concurrently with TEFAF.
These were sobering messages to those coming to view the wealth of treasures on show at TEFAF, but also heartening in that steps are being taken to preserve art. As the prince remarked, "We are lucky that these objects survived—sometimes against great odds—for us to admire today and preserve for tomorrow."