ICOM Watch List Syria

ICOM closely watches the events in Syria and makes an inventory of the status of Syrian heritage

Published on 23 April 2012

Author(s): ICOM

Type:  News

The first ICOM Syrian Watch List was edited on May 12, 2011. Since then, ICOM Secretariat had been continuously updating and completing it. The latest version has been edited by April 6, 2012.

Our Watch List covers 31 museums:

  • From 11 museums we have some information, but not from the 20 other ones.
  • Some evacuation of collections has been reported from six museums: Aleppo, Daraa, Hama, Homs, Palmyra, Quneitra
  • Thefts and looting have been reported form three museums: Apamea, Hama, Homs

The Watch List comprehends in total 92 entries, because we had also a look on 61 major monuments and sites.

This is a slim version of our 40 page internal Watch List. It is of a moderate lenght that is readable and printable for our heritage colleagues. It is also written in a neutral and impartial way, so it can be circulated widely.

The short list gives standardized damage reports (in red types) that roughly classify:

  • the kind of evidence (visually documented damages or reports)
  • the degree of certainty (contradicting information, unconfirmed information, confimed by …)
  • the kind of damage or threat
  • the origin of damage or threat (military, rebels, civilians).

By far the most important source for Syrian heritage in danger is the French-Arabic facebook page “Le patrimoine archéologique syrien en danger”: http://www.facebook.com/Archeologie.syrienne

Back to previous page