Saving Art and Artists

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Ukrainian Landscape Volodymyr Orlovsky

The Smithsonian Institution Cultural Rescue Initiative (begun in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti), is working in conjunction with the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History to identify at-risk cultural targets in the Ukraine. The team lab, housed in Martinsville, Virginia, is acting as a rapid-response team working around the clock. The lab uses satellite sensors and infrared technology to track military strikes, mapping their proximity to culturally significant areas. Their work at matching strikes with their cultural heritage inventory maps helps to minimize response time for the conservators and other professionals who are working to protect important art and cultural sites.

Their work also creates documentation that can show the crimes being committed in violation of the UNESCO 1954 Hague Convention treaty, signed by both Ukraine and Russia which pledges protection o…