News: UNESCO launched the Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects to confront illicit trafficking and reconnect communities with stolen heritage.
About Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects
- It is an online museum that helps communities reconnect with their stolen cultural treasures and works to stop the illegal trade of heritage items, including those taken during colonial times.
- Aim: To protect shared heritage by stopping illicit trafficking and reconnecting communities with stolen objects.
- It also aims to help recover these items and return them to their countries of origin, restoring public access and recognition.
- Launched by: It is launched by UNESCO.
- Launching: It is launched at UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development in Barcelona.
- Designed by: It is designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Francis Kéré.
- Financial support: is financially supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the project was developed in collaboration with the INTERPOL.
- It was developed in response to the call of UN member states for a coordinated strategy to raise awareness on illicit trafficking.
- UNESCO’s 1970 Convention calls on signatory states to combat the illicit trade in cultural property—a market that Interpol warns is increasingly dominated by organized criminal networks.
- Key feature
- The visual structure of the website in the form of a baobab tree, which is a noted symbol of strength in the African continent.
- The website also features testimonies from affected communities, and points to locations on a map from where the objects were stolen.
- It offers 3D, spinnable digital reconstructions (including AI-assisted models), interactive tools, searchable attributes, community testimonies, and maps of theft locations.
- The museum currently displays almost 240 missing objects from 46 countries.
- About Sculptures from Indian temple
- The museum shows two ninth-century sandstone sculptures from the Mahadev Temple in Pali, Chhattisgarh: a Nataraja of Shiva and a seated Brahma.
