“Behind every stolen work or fragment lies a piece of history, identity, and humanity that has been wrenched from its custodians, rendered inaccessible to research, and now risks falling into oblivion.
Our objective with this is to place these works back in the spotlight, and to restore the right of societies to access their heritage, experience it, and recognize themselves in it.”
Our objective with this is to place these works back in the spotlight, and to restore the right of societies to access their heritage, experience it, and recognize themselves in it.”
Unesco director-general, Audrey Azoulay.
Published images of Kéré's project, which he is collaborating with Web programmers to translate into digital reality, show a large transparent dome-globe with gallery spaces bordering a Guggenheim-like spiral central ramp, inspired by the African baobab tree, contained within the globe and connecting regions, countries, cultures, the 600 artifacts that will make up the inaugural collection will appear.
According to the Antiquities Coalition, a US-based NGO, the most significant looted and stolen artifacts currently missing globally include a third-century alabaster stone inscription taken from the Awwam temple in Yemen between 2009 and 2011.
Also on the coalition’s list are a seventh-century BC ivory relief of a lion attacking a Nubian, stolen from the Baghdad Museum in 2003; a green stone mask looted from the Maya site of Rio Azul, Guatemala in the 1970s; and a fifth-sixth century figurine of Varaha taken from a temple complex in Rajasthan, India in 1988.
The $2.5m (€2.37m) virtual museum should open in 2025., visitors will be able to navigate through a succession of virtual spaces in which detailed 3D representations of the pieces will be presented.
According to the Antiquities Coalition, a US-based NGO, the most significant looted and stolen artifacts currently missing globally include a third-century alabaster stone inscription taken from the Awwam temple in Yemen between 2009 and 2011.
Also on the coalition’s list are a seventh-century BC ivory relief of a lion attacking a Nubian, stolen from the Baghdad Museum in 2003; a green stone mask looted from the Maya site of Rio Azul, Guatemala in the 1970s; and a fifth-sixth century figurine of Varaha taken from a temple complex in Rajasthan, India in 1988.
The $2.5m (€2.37m) virtual museum should open in 2025., visitors will be able to navigate through a succession of virtual spaces in which detailed 3D representations of the pieces will be presented.
