Abstract
Guidance on reconstruction is being prepared to implement recent decisions of the World Heritage (WH) Committee. Special attention is given to reconstruction post-inscription within the framework of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of destroyed cultural WH properties. However, guidance must also cover reconstruction pre-inscription because destroyed properties on the Tentative Lists of States Parties may be reconstructed and nominated for inscription on the WH List in the future. This article shifts the attention towards the latter. It revisits the pillars of OUV and elucidates the relation between key concepts to develop a roadmap for new nominations in line with the WH Convention and the growing understanding of heritage as dynamic process in scholarly literature. It explains that States Parties must provide a statement of cultural significance (SCS) to meet the qualifying condition of continuity, and a heritage impact report (HIR) to meet the qualifying conditions of compatibility and distinction. Cultural criteria (i)–(vi) form a reminder list rather than a selection list in the roadmap. The SCS and HIR are, instead, the criteria on the basis of which reconstructed cultural properties may be inscribed. Moreover, authenticity and integrity are rendered redundant by the three qualifying conditions. As a result, this article makes a timely, original, academic and operational contribution to the ongoing preparation of guidance at the international level.
Highlights
Reconstructed cultural properties may possess Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and become part of the shared heritage of humanity once they are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) List
The results show that 44% of the respondents considered physical reconstruction “a problem” for heritage sites, but 38%, which is an almost equivalent proportion, considered it “a benefit”; “(60%) agreed to varying extents [ . . . ] that the view of the Venice Charter in its opposition to reconstruction was still viable and relevant”, but the conclusion of the report stresses that “a significant proportion of the respondents
The relation between key concepts, established in this article, shows that a statement of cultural significance (SCS) and a heritage impact report (HIR) ought to become the two criteria on the basis of which a reconstructed cultural property may be inscribed on the WH List if it qualifies, i.e., if it meets the conditions of continuity, compatibility and distinction rather than the conditions of authenticity and integrity
Summary
Reconstructed cultural properties may possess Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and become part of the shared heritage of humanity once they are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) List. This value “is the touchstone for all inscribed properties” [1] 8) as expressed in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, known as the WH Convention [2]. The latter was established to recognize properties that “deserve protection and transmission to future generations, and which are important for the whole of humanity” [1] The authors of that charter were “very skeptical of Heritage 2018, 1, 189–206; doi:10.3390/heritage1020013 www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage
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