Refuges for movable cultural property in wartime

Lessons for contemporary practice from Second World War Italy

Bibliographic Data

ID5700799
AuthorsNigel Pollard (0000-0002-8291-3334, Swansea University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume26
Issue7
Pages667-683
Publication date2020-07-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2019.1678052
OpenAlexW2980333352
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited8

Experiences of the Second World War were recent to those who drafted the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and many of its provisions reflect those lessons. One under-used area of provision in Hague 1954 that reflects such experience relates to wartime shelters (‘refuges’) for movable cultural property including works of art, museum collections, books and archives.1 This paper examines damage and risk to movable cultural property sheltered in refuges in Italy during the Second World War to demonstrate that their secrecy exposed them to damage by (i) careless military occupation, (ii) deliberate combatant damage, (iii) accidental and collateral damage, and (iv) looting. The 1954 Hague Convention provides for marked refuges for movable cultural property under both special and general protection, and these historical case studies also highlight some of the potential advantages (and problems) of internationally recognised refuges in advertised locations, and of the Convention's ‘special protection’ regime more generally

Archaeology · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Geography · Political science · World War II · Archaeological Research and Protection · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Philosophy

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