L’Unesco ha annunciato un progetto per la realizzazione del museo virtuale di manufatti artistici rubati, volto a sensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica sull’importanza unica del patrimonio culturale.

Risale al 1970 la convenzione dell’Unesco sulla proibizione dell’importazione, dell’esportazione e della vendita illecite di beni culturali, un traffico che  secondo l’Interpol è sempre più appannaggio della criminalità organizzata. Ne parla John Henley sul Guardian.

“Behind every stolen work or fragment lies a piece of history, identity and humanity that has been wrenched from its custodians, rendered inaccessible to research, and now risks falling into oblivion,” said the Unesco director general, Audrey Azoulay. “Our objective with this is to place these works back in the spotlight, and to restore the right of societies to access their heritage, experience it, and recognise themselves in it,” Azoulay told a meeting of national representatives in Paris.

Il museo virtuale — che dovrebbe aprire nel 2025 — è sviluppato in collaborazione con l’Interpol, nel cui database di oggetti rubati in tutto il mondo da musei, collezioni e siti archeologici sono compresi più di 52.000 manufatti. I visitatori potranno accedere a immagini 3D dettagliate dei vari pezzi, ciascuno accompagnato da  contenuti illustrativi volti a spiegarne il significato culturale, accompagnati da testimonianze e storie delle comunità locali.

“These are objects that exist physically, but we don’t know where,” Ernesto Ottone, the organisation’s assistant director general for culture, told the Guardian. “We will exhibit them virtually, in a space where we can really tell the story and the context behind them.” Ottone said the aim was to “help young people especially to understand that a stolen artefact is one that has been ripped from its community, but also to help recover stolen objects and promote the repatriation of cultural property generally”. Logically, he said, the museum’s ultimate aim should be its own disappearance: “It’s the opposite of a regular museum, whose collection will continue to expand. With this one, we hope its collection will shrink, as items are recovered one by one.”