Description:
The Rising from Destruction Campaign was conceived in 2016 by the Incontro di Civiltà Association as a call to action against the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage, which has become a core feature of modern conflicts. The project involves four awareness-raising exhibitions, an international conference, the restoration and repatriation of two damaged busts from Palmyra and a documentary was produced and broadcast by the Italian television channel Sky Arte. Raising awareness on the importance of protecting cultural heritage is the central aim of this campaign. The exhibition “Rising from Destruction. Ebla, Nimrud, Palmyra” took place in the Colosseum, Rome from October to December 2016. It is estimated that 300,000 people visited the exhibition, which proposed the 1:1 reconstructions of three monuments destroyed by ISIS: the human-headed bull (Nimrud), the Archive Room (Ebla), the ceiling of Bel’s Temple (Palmyra). Two damaged sculptures recovered in 2015 from Palmyra by the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums of Damascus (DGAM) were restored by the Superior Institute for Conservation and returned to Syria in February 2017.