Cultural heritage officials condemn Trump’s threats against Iranian sites

Meanwhile, an impromptu tribute to the country’s cultural heritage broke out on Twitter, as users posted images of their favourite places Museum officials and cultural heritage experts spoke out on Monday condemning US President Trump’s bellicose threats to target sites “important to Iran & the Iranian culture” if it retaliates against American citizen or assets for the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani.

“The targeting of sites of global cultural heritage is abhorrent to the collective values of our society,” said Daniel Weiss, the president and ceo of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Max Hollein, its director, in a joint statement. “Our world knows precisely what is gained from protecting cultural sites, and, tragically, what is lost when destruction and chaos prevail. At this challenging time, we must remind ourselves of the global importance of protecting cultural sites – the objects and places by which individuals, communities, and nations connect to their history and heritage. Today’s leaders and citizens have many profound responsibilities – protecting lives, and also protecting the precious legacy of generations before us, as it is from these shared places of cultural heritage that we gain the wisdom to secure safe and better futures.”

The Archaeological Institute of America, an advocate for the preservation of the world’s archaeological heritage, released a statement condemning “any intentional targeting of Iranian cultural heritage sites in unequivocal terms” and called upon President Trump and the Defense Department “to protect civilians and cultural heritage in Iran, and to reaffirm that US military forces will comply only with lawful military orders”.

The Association of Art Museum Directors, which represents 225 museums in the Americas, also released a statement saying it “deplores the tactic of targeting or demolishing cultural sites as part of any war or armed conflict. In this case, the region is home to unique and irreplaceable artifacts and archaeological sites, and AAMD strongly urges international engagement to protect and preserve our shared cultural heritage.” Pointing to historic efforts to safeguard art and artefacts during armed conflict, like the Monuments Men programme during the Second World War, it added: “The United States government should be aware of the location of the region's many significant cultural and religious sites and monuments—and the museum community stands ready to assist with locating them and working to help US forces avoid targeting or destroying them.”

Patty Gerstenblith, the director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University in Chicago pointed to the international directives Trump would be violating if he were to attack cultural sites in Iran, including the 1954 Hague Convention, and the Department of Defense’s own Law of War manual. “President Trump's threats to attack Iran's cultural sites as a form of premeditated retaliation would clearly violate these instruments and would be an illegal command,” Gerstenblith says. “On behalf of the US Committee of the Blue Shield, the primary organisation that works to protect cultural heritage during armed conflict and natural disaster, I and many others in the cultural heritage field sincerely hope that the situation will not come to this.”

Hermann Parzinger, the executive president of the heritage foundation Europa Nostra, says it is "unacceptable that President Trump should threaten the destruction of Iranian cultural heritage sites as a weapon of war". He adds that the group urges world leaders and governments "to take cultural heritage out of the equation of political and armed conflicts and to put it where it belongs, at the very heart of what brings us together in mutual respect and dialogue, and as a source of enrichment and inspiration for present and future generations."

Meanwhile, an impromptu tribute to the country’s cultural heritage broke out on Twitter, as users posted images of their favourite places using the hashtag #IranianCulturalSites. Among the heritage treasures highlighted are the beautifully tiled Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Esfahan, the Nas?r al-Mulk Mosque in Shiraz, also known as the Pink Mosque, with its rainbow hued stained glass, and the ancient Persian city of Persepolis, among the first sites to be added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, in 1979.

» Source: The Art Newspaper

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