Palmyra recaptured: restoration begins

Syrian troops recaptured Palmyra from the Islamic State last week, at the close of three weeks of intense fighting. The ancient city had been occupied by the jihadists since May 2015.

A Syrian Army soldier on patrol near the Great Colonnade in Palmyra
(Image: TASS / Barcroft Media)

Palmyra, known as the “pearl of the desert”, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and was one of the most important cultural centres of antiquity. At the crossroads of several civilisations, its art and architecture combines Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences. The ancient city counts among its losses the 2,000 year-old Temple of Bel, the shrine of Baal Shamin, the Arch of Triumph dating from around 200AD, and its head of antiquities, Khaled al-Assaad, who was killed for refusing to reveal to the jihadists where valuable artefacts had been hidden for safekeeping. Some sites, such as the Roman amphitheatre, were preserved for use in the Islamic State’s public executions.

The Syrian Army also discovered that the IS had planted at least 150 mines scattered around the historic quarter and residential area of Palmyra, where many of the city's most famous ruins are, as they had retreated from the city.

Nonetheless, the mood was jubilant. President Bashar al-Assad hailed the victory as an "important achievement" and declared his intention to rebuild the city: "Palmyra was demolished more than once through the centuries ... and we will restore it anew so it will be a treasure of cultural heritage for the world."

Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s head of antiquities and museums, told AFP: “We were expecting the worst. But the landscape, in general, is in good shape. 'We could have completely lost Palmyra. The joy I feel is indescribable”. Some news sources report that no greater damage was inflicted as the result of a secret talks between Islamic State and the Syrian authorities, who warned of the dangers of sparking a popular uprising with their activities.

Abdulkarim suggested that “if we have UNESCO's approval, we will need five years to restore the structures damaged or destroyed by IS”. Whilst doubt has been cast by one UN expert over how realistic this timeframe is, work has already begun. Russia intends to send explosives experts and robots to help remove the mines, and is working with UNESCO to send a mission of experts to assess the damage and begin the task of restoration. Abdulkarim has promised a blueprint for reconstruction by next month: “We will assess how much damage the stones suffered and we will re-use them in order to scientifically put back the temples…we have the plans and the images and we will rebuild the missing portions until the temples of Bel and Baalshamin are rebuilt.”

Virtual restoration of Mosul Museum to help track looted items

An EU-led initiative plans to virtually restore the artefacts damaged by ISIS at Iraq’s Mosul Museum. Using crowd-sourced images to recreate lost and destroyed items, researchers hope that these 3D ‘virtual museums’ will aid efforts to identify and track down looted items.

Project Mosul is a collaborative effort between researchers from the ITN-DCH (Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage: Projecting our Past to the Future), EUROPEANA SPACE and 4D-CH-WORLD projects. The project was launched two weeks after a video was released on Youtube showing the sacking of Iraq’s 300-year old Mosul Museum by Islamic State. Extremists filmed themselves using sledgehammers to destroy a series of ancient sculptures - some almost 3,000 years old and dating from the Assyrian Empire.



Screen shot of the video released by Islamic State (Image: YouTube)

The project website reads: “We assume that much of the museum's contents were looted, and anything small enough to be easily removed will be appearing soon on the antiquities market. Anything too large to remove for sale, appears to have met a violent end at the hand of ISIS extremists. In both cases, it is possible to virtually recreate the lost items through the application of photogrammetry and crowdsourcing. Given enough photographs, digital or scans of analogues, it is possible to reconstruct the artefacts and create digital surrogates of those artefacts. This provides two immediate benefits: helping to identify looted items and recreating destroyed items.”

Importantly, the project team also points out the importance of keeping the memory of these objects and their meaning alive, rather than seeing virtual reconstruction as an end in itself. For communities faced with loss of their cultural heritage, this project will provide a tool to preserve, disseminate and re-engage with their history.

However, the Mosul Museum has been closed since the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003, meaning that relevant images can prove very difficult to locate. Pictures of the destroyed museum objects, including Assyrian and Hatrene artefacts, will be retrieved from Open Access repositories of FLICKR and PICASA, the EU digital library Europeana and anyone else willing to contribute images of their own. These 3D reconstructions will then be presented in an online museum where the data will be freely accessible to the public. 



Reconstruction of lion statue destroyed by the Islamic State
(Image: ingg/Sketchfab)

The team is calling on volunteers to help them with a variety of tasks: finding photos, processing data, contributing to the website and generally helping out with organising the effort to identify the museum artefacts.

To get involved, visit the Project Mosul website:

http://projectmosul.org/

Rothko Restored!

Some months ago I wrote an entry regarding Art Attacks.  For lack of another term of art, an "art attack" is when a famous work of art is defaced or otherwise attacked by another artist--the act of the attack or the resulting "new" work being considered art by the attacker.  One such incident occurred late in 2012 when Mark Rothko's painting Black on Maroon was written on in graffiti pen at the Tate Modern.  After 18 months of work by conservators, the painting has been restored and is now available for viewing at the museum.  Phaidon provides an absolutely fascinating look behind the scenes at what it took to restore the piece.  While Black on Maroon is now considered back to its original condition, the implication of the attack and ensuing restoration on the painting's value is estimated to be a £5 million loss, though the Tate indicates it has no intent to sell the piece.  I certainly hope our London-based readers will take the opportunity to go view this brilliantly restored work in person.

Colosseum won't be restored in a day

A Colosseum's view

Italian cultural officials announced that the  Colosseum, the most important monument in the world, will be entirely restored starting from December 2012 till 2017. Restoration will cost around 25 million Euro and will be sponsored by the fashion brand Tod's, thanks to a contract signed among: such shoes company, the city of Rome and other public authorities as the Ministry of the Italian Culture. 

The conservative works of Colosseum will eventually start after an Italian consumers' association currently lost their legal suit, where they challenged the sponsorship agreement with Tod's, saying that other potential benefactors were illegally excluded from the  public bid. 

The restoration will start 73 years after the last works on the monument took place and will be divided into  three stages. The first stage of restoration involves cleaning and restoring the monument façades and the substitution of the metal enclosures that seal off the ground-level arches: this first period is expected to end by mid 2015.

The second stage deals with the creation of a service center and should finish at the end of 2015, whereas the last stage will involve the restoration of: various galleries, underground spaces inside the monument, besides all the Colosseum surroundings and will finish in 2017.

Diego della Valle, Tod's chairman, said he hopes his sponsorship can incentive other businessmen, both Italian and foreigner, to do the same helping to preserve Italian artistic patrimony. However, the sponsorship of the restoration will grant Tod's the exclusive right to use the Colosseum logo for 15 years on its products, print Tod's trademark on entry tickets, besides managing a reception center.

Finally, visitors to Colosseum will be glad to hear that the most important symbol of the Imperial Rome will remain open throughout the conservation works. The total space that can be visited will be increased by 25% once the restoration is complete