Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> Received: from rly-yb02.mx.aol.com (rly-yb02.mail.aol.com [172.18.146.2]) by air-yb02.mail.aol.com (v59.4) with SMTP; Tue, 18 May 1999 16:18:48 -0400 Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by rly-yb02.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id QAA28097; Tue, 18 May 1999 16:18:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: by europe.std.com (STD1.2/BZS-8-1.0) id QAA21700; Tue, 18 May 1999 16:17:37 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mailgate.city.ac.uk by europe.std.com (STD1.2/BZS-8-1.0) id QAA21694; Tue, 18 May 1999 16:17:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [138.40.12.12] (helo=mailswitch) by mailgate.city.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 2.05 #4) id 10jqDt-0006Uo-00; Tue, 18 May 1999 21:12:21 +0100 Received: from swindon.city.ac.uk ([138.40.1.3] ident=sm350) by mailswitch with esmtp (Exim 2.10 #2) id 10jqIi-0002lL-00; Tue, 18 May 1999 21:17:20 +0100 Received: from localhost (sm350@localhost) by swindon.city.ac.uk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id VAA10498; Tue, 18 May 1999 21:17:29 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: swindon.city.ac.uk: sm350 owned process doing -bs Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 21:17:29 +0100 (BST) From: Boylan P <[log in to unmask]> X-Sender: sm350@swindon To: ICOM Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> cc: [log in to unmask] Subject: YUGOSLAVIA - INTERNATIONAL MUSEUMS DAY AND 100TH ANNIVERSARY DAY OF FIRST HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE AND 1899 HAGUE CONVENTION Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95q.990518211627.9390C-100000@swindon> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: [log in to unmask] Precedence: list Reply-To: Boylan P <[log in to unmask]> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Colleagues: Congratulations to the ICOM Yugoslavia National Committee which, despite the severe restrictions on travel etc., has managed to mark International Museums Day with simultaneous meetings in Belgrade and Novi Sad. They are also maintaining an ICOM Yugoslavia web site which details war damage to those museums to which professional access is possible, and related war damage to architectural monuments etc. The address is: http://mediateka.f.bg.ac.yu/icomyu/ (Note that the address misses out the "www" at the beginning. Extensive blast damage to the following four museums has been reported so far (though the collections are apparently mainly intact so far): Belgrade: Museum of Modern Art Nis: Red Cross Memorial Museum - at the former World War II Concentration Camp Novi Sad: Museum of Vojvodina Leskovac: National Museum Several important historic centres of smaller towns, especially in Kosovo, have been very extensively damaged, and it is possible that smaller local and community museums in these areas may have been damaged or destroyed as well, though there has been no professional communication with these for some time. (Judging by the photographs, on the basis of what is known at present the former concentration camp museum at Nis seems to have suffered the worst structural damage, though the repairs etc. elsewhere may be more costly - especially the modernist style Vojvodina Museum near the Danube bridge at Novi Sad which has lost around 500 square metres of outside glass walls and a further 300 sq. metres of windows etc.) The national monuments service is managing to maintain some level of inspection or recording of the 4,000+ nationally protected historic buildings and sites across Yugoslavia, in cooperation with Orthodox Church authorities and sources in the case of religious buildings and zones, and gives details of the extensive damage to cultural monuments and other historic building's and sites on its official web site: http://www.yuheritage.com The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS - the standing joint emergency preparedness and response committee of the UNESCO Category A non-governmental organisations for archives (ICA), libraries (IFLA), monuments and sites (ICOMOS) and museums (ICOM) has been is session in The Hague during the past two days, and is preparing a further public statement on the present dangerous situation. This will be a follow-up to that issued on 19 April (since when the rate and scale of "collateral" damage to culture in the bombing campaign seems to have increased significantly - reflecting the marked increase in the range of types of targets - not just the increased intensity of the bombing. The BBC World Service is running a substantial feature on the cultural damage in Yugoslavia in its "Meridian" arts programme that goes out for the first time at 23.30h. Central European Time tonight (18 May), and linked to both Museums Day and the signing last night in The Hague of the new 2nd Protocol, intended to greatly strengthen the application and effectiveness of the 1954 Hague Convention, including an interview with me recorded this afternoon on the reports of damage and destruction of cultural property in the NATO air campaign and both the existing and proposed new international law intended to prevent this. Patrick Boylan