This year's Mediterranean Bourse of Archaeological Tourism in Paestum will be focusing on a wide range of issues, from smuggling of cultural artifacts in Italy to the safeguarding of cultural heritage in war zones, and will take a look at the situation of Italian archaeological missions in Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran and Pompeii.
The opening conference at 10 AM will be taken part in by Italian Culture Undersecretary Ilaria Borletti Buitoni, Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage director Mounir Bouchenaki and Deputy Culture Minister of Azerbaijan Vaqif Aliyev, who will be presenting to the public the invaluable cultural heritage of the Caucasian republic that is the 2014 official guest of honor.
A long-standing event on Italian activities abroad will be held on Friday, October 31, with a focus on 'Training and Experience Exchange' under the Promozione del Sistema Paese and Cooperazione allo Sviluppo directorates of the Italian foreign ministry, with participation by directors of archaeological missions in Argentina, Jordan, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey.
The Forum of Foreign Archaeological Institutes in Italy will be discussing the situation on Friday in an event curated by the International Union of History, Art History and Archaeology Institutes in Rome. Some of the guests this year include Bahrain's Minister of Culture Sheikha Mai Bin Mohammad Al Khalifa, Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage director Mounir Bouchenaki and Taleb Rifai, United Nations World Tourism Organization secretary general (Friday 6:30 PM); Christian Greco, director of Turin's Egyptian Museum (Friday 12 PM) and Laurent Haumesser, conservationist at the Louvre Museum Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities (Friday 6PM).
The Bourse will look both at what is happening abroad and what is happening in the area in Italy. An important section will be on the smuggling of cultural artifacts, told through the experience of the Carabinieri tasked with protecting cultural heritage, and another on the ''monumental areas of the South for an integrated system of tourist attractions and opportunities of Expo Milano 2015'', held in collaboration with the directorate generals for antiquities and culture heritage of the Italian culture ministry.
There will also be an event entitled 'Pompeii: yesterday, today and tomorrow', with speeches by Giovanni Nistri, general director of a large project for Pompeii, and Massimo Osanna, superintendent for Archeological Heritage of Pompei, Ercolano and Stabia.
''Since 1998, the Mediterranean Bourse of Archaeological Tourism has become an ever vaster 'container' for countries of all continents, which have long been investing in their priceless archaeological heritages,'' said director Ugo Picarelli.
Source: ANSAmed [October 30, 2014]