World Monuments Fund

The World Monuments Fund (WMF), an international organisation with headquarters in New York City, is the foremost private, nonprofit organisation devoted to on-site conservation of monuments and sites worldwide. Since its founding in 1965, WMF has brought together public and private support to achieve an unmatched record of successful conservation projects in more than eighty countries.

Cutting across geographic, cultural and national boundaries, WMF projects have included the vast Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Angkor, Cambodia; the Easter Island sculptures; a historic synagogue in Kracow, Poland; the adobe churches of New Mexico; a modern house on Long Island; and more than twenty-five sites in Venice. The organisation’s efforts include project planning, field surveys, fieldwork, on-site training in the building crafts, advocacy, and the development of long-term strategies for the protection of monuments and sites.
In addition to intervening at individual endangered sites, WMF carries out its work through an array of regional and global programs. Prominent among these is the World Monuments Watch, established in 1995 with the support of founding sponsor American Express.

For the Watch program, WMF convenes a panel of experts every two years to compile a list of 100 sites worldwide in urgent need of immediate intervention. The resulting “Watch list” draws international attention to these sites, and is often the only hope for cultural monuments that are threatened by such factors as war, pollution, natural disasters, neglect, uncontrolled tourism, and wanton destruction.

WMF supports field conservation through a range of grant programs devoted to specific areas, such as the European Preservation Program supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Jewish Heritage Grant Program, under leadership of The Hon. Ronald S. Lauder. The Robert W. Wilson Challenge to Conserve our Heritage provides funds to WMF for major international partnerships co-supported by WMF and non-US partners around the world.

WMF initiated publication of a quarterly magazine, ICON, in 2002. It was selected by Library Journal as one of the 10 Best New Magazines of 2002.

The World Monuments Fund is under the leadership of Bonnie Burnham, president, and a Board of Trustees chaired by Marilyn Perry. WMF Europe, located in Paris, was recently established to coordinate the work of the organization’s affiliates in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and to expand WMF’s activities in Continental Europe; WMF Britain, located in London, addresses WMF’s agenda in the United Kingdom.

For more information, the public can visit www.wmf.org, or call 646-424-9594.

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