World Monuments Watch 1996–97: Lessons from the First Cycle

Abstract

The World Monuments Watch list of endangered cultural heritage properties has taken a broad approach to the problem of identifying and classifying conservation challenges worldwide through case studies and advocacy. Sites are ultimately listed based on their competitiveness in three categories of critical review: significance of the base resource, urgency of primary threats, and viability of the proposed response to those threats. After one full cycle of activity, including nomination, selection, grant administration and project implementation, a number of important patterns of interest to cultural resource managers emerge: many sites suffer from antipathy or misunderstanding on the part of presumed caretakers as much as physical deterioration; urgency of threats must be weighed against the nature of the resource and the thresholds of feasible repair; government agencies are increasingly unable to meet the demands of conserving the entire corpus of their national patrimony, and increasingly require material assistance from the private sector; and solutions that acknowledge the need for public/private partnerships in problem solving tend to be the most successful.