7. Bénédicte de Montlaur: Preserving Splendid Sites
“You can rewrite history by destroying monuments. Our built heritage plays a big part in the way we see our identity and our history. And that's why during conflict, people are targeting it.”
EPISODE 7 | 28 min | Feb 29, 2024
In a world marked by volatility, Bénédicte de Montlaur oversees projects that grapple with the profound effects of war, climate change, urbanization, and the fading traditions of artisanship.
Bénédicte is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the World Monuments Fund, an organization dedicated to preserving our world's treasured sites. Her job: To urgently address and tackle challenges that threaten our cultural heritage. She says: "The problem today is that things are disappearing very quickly. We have to recount the stories of these places so that people realize the importance of heritage." A former senior diplomat at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bénédicte is a polyglot who speaks French, English, Arabic and Spanish. In 2015, she bridged into the world of culture when she became the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States. Her focus has remained on facilitating mutual understanding between people and strengthening communities that refused to let their legacies fade away.
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Website: World Monument Fund