The ‘Blue Helmets of Culture’ will be deployed in Italy and abroad to defend cultural heritage and to counter illicit trafficking of artworks.
“Italy excels in the protection and safeguard of cultural heritage; our skills are recognized all over the world.” These are the words of Italy’s Minister for Culture Dario Franceschini, who today signed the decree establishing the Blue Helmets of Culture Task Force. “The Blue Helmets of Culture,” Franceschini added, “will be deployed in Italy and abroad to defend cultural heritage from damage from disasters, natural disasters, wars, terrorist attacks and to counter the illicit trafficking of works of art”.
This measure comes on the eve of the European Council of Culture Ministers in Strasbourg, which will be chaired by Minister Franceschini and will be attended tomorrow morning by Ukrainian Minister for Culture Oleksander Tkachenko.
The ‘blue helmets of culture’ are civilian experts from the Ministry for Culture and highly-qualified military personnel from the Carabinieri’s Command for Cultural Heritage Protection (Tutela Patrimonio Culturale -TPC), trained to operate in areas affected by emergencies, such as disasters or man-made crises, within a framework of security, in order to:
(a) carry out reconnaissance of the cultural heritage in a crisis area and assess damage;
(b) identify places where cultural heritage can be safely stored;
(c) identify and implement safety interventions including the possible relocation of movable cultural heritage;
(d) provide the necessary technical and scientific support for the setting up of temporary storage facilities and any emergency response laboratories for movable cultural property removed from crisis sites;
(e) produce periodic monitoring reports on the progress of the mission;
(f) produce a final report on the mission.
Once stability, security and deployment have been evaluated, the Blue Helmets for Culture can be deployed in missions abroad at the behest of one or more foreign states, in consultation with Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The Task Force can operate also at the behest of UNESCO, as agreed at the G20 Culture Summit in late July.
Rome, March 31, 2022 – Press and Communication Office of the Ministry for Culture
Ministry of Culture – Minister Franceschini creates the Blue Helmets of Culture task force.
