The Great Wall of China, the palaces of Nimrud and Nineveh in Iraq and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis-Brown House in Los Angeles are among the watch list of 100 endangered sites released this week by the World Monuments Fund.
THE LIST INCLUDES sites from every continent, among them Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1908 expedition hut in Antarctica and Australia’s Dampier Rock art complex, which has rock carvings dating from 8000 B.C. Wright’s house, built in 1923, suggests pre-Colombian architecture with its textured blocks.
By focusing attention on the sites, the fund seeks to raise funds for their protection and to spur local governments to protect their cultural heritage.
“Be it a palace, a cave painting, an archaeological site, or a town, the sites on the watch list speak of human aspirations and achievements,” said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund. “To lose any one of them would diminish us all.”
InsertArt(2024359)The biennial watch list was begun in 1995 by the fund, a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to historic preservation. The list was compiled by a panel of international experts.
Threats to endangered sites include natural disasters, deterioration caused by age and manmade threats such as neglect, mismanagement and inappropriate development, fund officials said.
In the case of the Nimrud and Nineveh Palaces, the fund said that 12 years of sanctions limited the ability of Iraqi authorities to control looting; further looting and vandalism occurred following the U.S.-led invasion earlier this year.
A portion of the Great Wall of China is suffering from vandalism and erosion by tourists, the fund said.
Six sites in the United States are on the list, including historic lower Manhattan, which suffered following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Last month, the World Monuments Fund joined other preservation groups in issuing a call to save historic buildings that they said could be threatened by the redevelopment of the World Trade Center.© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.