SAVING OUR PAST A Race Against Time WORLD MONUMENTS FUND WORLD MONUMENTS FUND SAVING OUR PAST A Race Against Time £ 1965 \ \ 1990 ¿ This Anniversary Catalogue was made possible by a generous grant from the American Express Philanthropic Program The World Monuments Fund, based in New York City, is the only private, non­ profit organization that spon­ sors worldwide preservation activities. Its goal is to bring together public and private support to assure the survival of the world's most outstand­ ing artistic and architectural treasures. This work focuses on the restoration of monu­ ments and works of art that are in danger of loss or de­ struction. Through funding from its membership and philanthropic sponsors, WMF contributes technical and financial support to help save these works. WMF also supports research, training and advocacy activities as they relate to the restoration and safeguarding of monu­ ments and sites. This retrospective catalogue was conceived in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name which opened September 1990 at the Met Life Gallery, New York. WMF is grateful to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. for supporting the planning of the 25th anniversary program and the research of the Endangered Monuments List. World Monuments Fund 174 East 80th Street New York, N.Y. 10021 212-517-9367 ISBN No. 0-9627931-0-8 Copyright © 1990 World Monuments Fund All rights reserved. Man's architectural heritage - What would the world be To preserve today the man- Bonnie Burnham - reflecting the diversity, the like without these wonders? made world for the genera­ Executive Director resourcefulness and the It would doubtless become tions of tomorrow will World Monuments Fund beauty of life itself — is fast increasingly drab without require us to meet complex disappearing. The bulldozer, the variety created by challenges. But we must catastrophes of nature and centuries of layered experi­ succeed. If we do not, all war, and the accelerated pace ence and expression. The that individuals in our time of deterioration are taking daily rituals that are so have achieved and created— the past from us at a rate important to civilization the problems we have solved never before experienced. As would be lost forever. and the lessons we hope to old buildings are leveled to convey to the next genera­ The inspiration gained provide for modern ways of tion—will be overshadowed through direct experience life and ancient monuments by what our century has of man's most powerful are consumed by pollution, destroyed. For the built en­ artistic works would be we face as never before the vironment, the evidence of dimmed through secondary prospect of losing the mankind's finest expression, experience. Perhaps this tangible evidence of what has is the spiritual as well as the world of the future would been most meaningful to and physical link between yearn for the past, and in its humanity in the past. The generations. It represents buildings feebly attempt to timeless Sphinx, eternal the very continuity of recapture the spirit of a lost Rome, the churches of mankind and cumulative world without fully under­ Europe and America, and result of our endeavors. standing its rationale or its even temples hidden in the mechanisms. Such a world jungles of Asia and South will have lost much of its America could deteriorate human scale, its eccentric beyond retrieval within the character, its capacity to next hundred years. Count­ surprise and delight. less beautiful edifices that are the sole evidence of meaning­ We will pass this condition ful chapters of history could on to our children unless disappear in our lifetime, we see to it that our richly joining the thousands already varied cultural patrimony, lost in this century. created by mankind over countless centuries, is preserved. 3 Venice, 1989 4 Saving Our Past: A Race Against Time The Parthenon is the crown­ Our cultural heritage is as Today, there is a growing Linda Marchisotto ing glory of Athens. It sits important to our survival as uniformity in the world and Curator atop a city with one of the the air we breathe and the as a result, we run the risk of World Monuments Fund worst levels of air pollution water we drink. It too is en­ losing our cultural identity 25th Anniversary Exhibition in the world. Every day, the dangered. Today, monu­ and the world, its cultural di­ buildings on the Athenian ments that have survived for versity. acropolis are slowly eaten centuries and represent the The world's monuments away by airborne pollutants, history of man throughout represent man's greatest whose effects are intensified the world are imperiled. spiritual and creative by rain and the cool night Their deterioration in just achievements. The responsi­ air causing condensation. the past fifty years due to en­ bility for protecting them is Hundreds of thousands of vironmental pollution is un­ a global one, as they speak to visitors flock yearly to see precedented. The effects of us of a shared past—a com­ and celebrate the Parthenon uncontrolled industrial de­ mon human heritage. Of as one of the highest velopment, acid rain, traffic Venice, John Russell recently achievements of Western flow and mass tourism have wrote in The New York civilization, yet it is by no been devastating. Add to Times, "What happens to means certain that future that the shortage of govern­ Venice affects all of us. The generations will have access ment funds coupled with a great city does not belong to this imperiled monument. lack of professionally trained only to Italy or to the personnel to preserve and Italians. It is held in trust as A recent article in The New protect these monuments, part of the inheritance of all York Times reports, "Acid and we have a cultural humankind." rain falling on the Yucatan preservation crisis of stagger­ Peninsula and much of ing proportions. For twenty-five years, the southern Mexico is fast World Monuments Fund, the bringing destruction to the Cultural heritage is a vital only private non-profit or­ temples, colorful murals and component of contemporary ganization in the world dedi­ haunting megaliths of the life. In With Heritage So cated to international preser­ ancient Maya civilization ... Rich, one of the first tracts vation, has been working to Environmental experts say on the preservation move­ preserve that inheritance. that this form of 'chemical ment in the United States, Saving Our Past: A Race weathering' is [also] threat­ Christopher Tunnard writes, Against Time celebrates the ening the millions of acres of "There is a need in every many successful projects tropical rainforests in generation to study the past, supported by WMF over the southern Mexico and to absorb its spirit, to years. It explores the chal­ Central America." Environ­ preserve its messages. There lenges they have met as well mental pollution has reached is an enrichment of life to be as the most urgent and crisis proportions. Rain­ found there which cannot be pressing issues facing the forests continue to disappear recreated artificially or by preservation of our cultural as the list of endangered searching for it in our own heritage today. wildlife grows. world. It is a collaboration of ourselves and our ances­ tors; the result is a deeper understanding for individu­ als and in consequence, a broader culture for the nation." 5 T.h h e flood of November 4, 1966 focused international attention on the complex natural and man-made problems threatening the very survival of Venice. Shortly thereafter, Unesco launched an international campaign to restore dam­ aged monuments and works of art. Numerous private and government organiza­ tions responded to the worldwide plea for help by raising funds and providing technical support to preserve and protect the city's rich legacy. The Venice Committee of the World Monuments Fund was among the first and most vigorous respon­ dents. Across the United States, concerned Americans established local chapters of the Venice Committee, each of which "adopted" a monument for restoration. The first project site, the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, became the headquarters of the Venice Committee and home away from home for Americans in Venice. More than twenty projects were completed over the subse­ quent twenty years. 6 In 1989, the Venice Com­ mittee expanded its goals and became WMF's Comi- tato Italiano, under the chairmanship of Count Paolo Marzotto of Vicenza. Composed of more than 200 private philanthropists in Italy and the United States, the Comitato Italiano uses its resources of funding and expertise to identify impor­ tant conservation priorities, support comprehensive planning and leverage government and private- sector support. The complete restoration of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, head­ quarters of one of the six Venetian lay confraternities, was the largest single under­ taking of the Venice Com­ mittee. The Scuola was built in the latter half of the 15th century. Its rich Venetian Renaissance facade dates to 1454, when the headquarters of the confraternity were rebuilt. The marble screen that closes its courtyard was constructed by Pietro Lom­ bardo in 1481. The Scuola's monumental double staircase and plan for the ground floor were contrib­ uted by Mauro Codussi, one of the greatest architects of the time. In the early 18th century, Giorgio Massari re­ decorated the sala maggiore on the second floor. The Scuola, which stands The restoration of the adjacent to a narrow canal, Scuola Grande di San Gio­ was in critical need of resto­ vanni Evangelista began in ration after the flood and it 1969 and was financed was among the first buildings jointly by the Venice Com­ to receive attention. Roof­ mittee and the Ministero per ing, masonry, window i Beni Cuturali e Ambien- casings, plaster work and tali.