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UN Agency Rejects Plan to Place Britain’s Stonehenge on List of Heritage Sites in Danger

Sheep graze beside the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge in southern England, on April 26, 2020, closed during the national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)
Sheep graze beside the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge in southern England, on April 26, 2020, closed during the national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)
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UN Agency Rejects Plan to Place Britain’s Stonehenge on List of Heritage Sites in Danger

Sheep graze beside the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge in southern England, on April 26, 2020, closed during the national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)
Sheep graze beside the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge in southern England, on April 26, 2020, closed during the national lockdown due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (AFP)

The United Nations’ cultural agency rejected recommendations Wednesday to place Stonehenge on the list of world heritage sites in danger over concerns that Britain’s plans to build a nearby highway tunnel threaten the landscape around the prehistoric monument.

UNESCO experts had recommended listing Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England, as “in danger” over controversial plans to redevelop the nearby highway that would include the creation of a new tunnel aimed at trying to ease traffic along a stretch of road widely prone to gridlock.

Had the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in New Delhi backed that recommendation, then British authorities would have come under pressure to think again.

UNESCO says a site’s inclusion on its List of World Heritage Sites in Danger is not punitive. Rather, it is aimed at drawing international attention to the urgent need for conservation measures and “encourage corrective action.” If issues are not rectified, sites face the possibility of being de-listed by UNESCO, though that is rare.

Britain was joined by others, including Kenya and Qatar in arguing that efforts to mitigate the effect on the site of the planned tunnel were sufficient and that it should not be added to the “in danger” list.

A spokesperson for the British government welcomed the decision over what is one of the country's “oldest and most celebrated sites.”

Stonehenge was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in stages, starting 5,000 years ago, with the unique stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period about 2,500 B.C.

It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986 — an honor bestowed upon sites that have special cultural or physical significance.

The highway project, which has been touted for decades and mired in legal challenges, is aimed at trying to ease traffic along a stretch of road prone to gridlock by moving the main highway underground and slightly farther away from the famous stone circle.

The A303 highway, which is a popular route for motorists traveling to and from the southwest of England, is often severely congested around the single-lane section of road near Stonehenge. As part of widespread improvements, a two-mile tunnel is being planned that will effectively remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site, and cut journey times.

The plan has faced fierce opposition from local residents and archaeologists, as well as concern from UNESCO, over potential damage to the environment, wildlife and possible new archaeological finds.

Last week, campaigners seeking to halt the plan began their latest legal challenge at the UK's Court of Appeal.

Kenya, in amending the recommendation to list the site as in danger, focused on the fact that the main stone circle would be farther away from the road with the new construction, and not the experts' assessment that the road project would significantly impact the greater site. It also noted that Britain had considered more than 50 proposals for the highway plan.

After rejecting the proposal to list Stonehenge as in danger, the committee agreed to ask Britain for an updated report on the state of conservation of the property by December 2025.

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Culture

Saudi Arabia: DGDA Held Eid Cultural Program Across Diriyah

Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) held a three-day festive program. SPA
Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) held a three-day festive program. SPA
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Saudi Arabia: DGDA Held Eid Cultural Program Across Diriyah

Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) held a three-day festive program. SPA
Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) held a three-day festive program. SPA

The Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA) held a three-day festive program celebrating Eid Al-Fitr from Friday to Sunday for residents and visitors of all ages.

The historic At Turaif District in Diriyah served as a central hub, featuring the Saudi Ardah dance at Salwa Palace and the “Hal Al-Qusoor” program, which uses interactive storytelling to highlight the history of the First Saudi State.

Festivities extended to Diriyah’s other districts, featuring traditional celebrations, folk performances, and family-friendly entertainment.

Children participated in specialized workshops focused on storytelling and creative writing, while family activities also highlighted Najdi heritage through play.

The programs focused on craftsmanship, offering workshops in arts and traditional trades such as accessory design, leather engraving, and the creation of custom oud mixtures, soap, and prayer beads.

These initiatives strengthen Diriyah’s position as a leading global cultural destination and align with Saudi Vision 2030 by enhancing the quality of life.

Culture

Matisse’s Last Years Cut Out -- But Not Pasted -- At Paris Expo

Artwork entitled "Autoportrait au chapeau de paille" by French artist Henri Matisse on display during the exhibition "Matisse 1941-1954" at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, 19 March 2026. (EPA)
Artwork entitled "Autoportrait au chapeau de paille" by French artist Henri Matisse on display during the exhibition "Matisse 1941-1954" at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, 19 March 2026. (EPA)
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Matisse’s Last Years Cut Out -- But Not Pasted -- At Paris Expo

Artwork entitled "Autoportrait au chapeau de paille" by French artist Henri Matisse on display during the exhibition "Matisse 1941-1954" at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, 19 March 2026. (EPA)
Artwork entitled "Autoportrait au chapeau de paille" by French artist Henri Matisse on display during the exhibition "Matisse 1941-1954" at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, 19 March 2026. (EPA)

The final years of Henri Matisse's artistic life, marked by the Nazi occupation of France and a brush with death and surgery, will light up a twilight retrospective opening next week.

From Tuesday, the Grand Palais in Paris will see a reunion of seminal series by the late French master, such as "Blue Nudes", "Jazz" or the monumental "La Gerbe" (The Sheaf), revealing the ageing painter's prolific work ethic despite his health woes.

The exhibition brings together 320 works, from media as varied as paintings, sketches, gouache cut-outs, textiles and stained glass, all drafted by the artist in the run-up to his death in 1954 at the age of 84.

Titled "Matisse 1941-1954", it chronicles a time when the Nazis considered Matisse a "degenerate" artist, during which he confessed to a friend that he came within a "whisker of death" after going under the surgeon's knife in 1941.

"At that time, he was therefore an elderly man, partially disabled and struggling to stand upright," said Claudine Grammont, the curator of the exhibition and a former director of the Matisse Museum in Nice.

Yet despite those woes, Matisse was about to embark on "the most prolific moment of his career", Grammont added.

"It's truly his apotheosis, meaning that the artist reaches a state of nonchalance, of detachment... in short, a moment of grace."

Grammont, who also heads the graphic art department at the French capital's famed Pompidou museum, bristles at the long-standing accusation that Matisse abandoned the art of painting for cut-outs in his old age.

"It has often been said, wrongly, that during this period Matisse stopped painting and did nothing but cut-out gouaches.

"Well, no: Matisse painted 75 paintings between 1941 and 1954."

Nonetheless, Matisse's supposed dotage was marked by an outbreak of inspiration.

"In 1950 alone, 40 works were produced. That's a lot for an 80-year-old man," Grammont said.

- 'Intimacy' -

Visitors will have until July 26 to catch the late Matisse's essential works, including the best part of his ornamentation for the Vence Chapel in southeastern France and its dozen paintings.

It also brings together four of his now-ubiquitous "Blue Nudes", which have become a modern cultural touchstone, visible on tourist-shop T-shirts and the walls of student bedsits alike, even despite criticism of the artist's supposed colonialism from his time in Tahiti.

Matisse would often work on pieces such as 1953's "La Gerbe", with its splash of vividly colored spiky cut-outs, at night, "because he was an insomniac", Grammont said.

For the curator, Matisse significantly altered his method in his final years, developing "a new iconographic vocabulary" through the cut-out to give his art a monumental scope.

Hence an exhibition on two floors, with spacious rooms capable of housing these large gouache cut-outs once pinned to the walls of his studio.

"What we wanted to recreate in the exhibition is this intimacy within the atelier," Grammont said.

"It's about being able to enter Matisse's studio and find yourself face to face with the artworks."

Culture

Türkiye in Cultural Diplomacy Push to Bring History Home

Türkiye's is waging an increasingly assertive campaign to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad. Ozan KOSE / AFP
Türkiye's is waging an increasingly assertive campaign to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad. Ozan KOSE / AFP
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Türkiye in Cultural Diplomacy Push to Bring History Home

Türkiye's is waging an increasingly assertive campaign to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad. Ozan KOSE / AFP
Türkiye's is waging an increasingly assertive campaign to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad. Ozan KOSE / AFP

When an ancient bronze statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius landed back on Turkish soil after decades abroad, it was more than a symbolic homecoming.

It marked the latest victory in Türkiye's increasingly assertive push to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad -- a campaign supported by a newly-developed AI tool for identifying cultural assets of Turkish origin.

The life-sized bronze, which dates back to the second- or third-century, was taken in the 1960s from the ancient city of Bubon near Türkiye's southwestern Antalya resort.

After a years-long investigation involving research, scientific testing and statements from now elderly witnesses, the headless statue arrived back in Türkiye last year.

Its repatriation from an Ohio museum involved cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

For Zeynep Boz, director of Türkiye's department for combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property, one moment stands out.

"I clearly remember when the computer finally processed the data and we saw the match come together. It was an exciting moment," she told AFP at Istanbul's archaeology museum.

That the statue survived at all is exceptional: in antiquity, bronze was a valuable raw material routinely melted down for weapons, coins or everyday objects.

"For this reason, bronze statues of this scale have rarely been preserved until today," she said.

For years, Cleveland's Museum of Art had dragged its feet, claiming there was insufficient evidence to prove where it came from, Boz said.

But that changed after archaeometry expert Professor Ernst Pernicka concluded there was "no doubt whatsoever" the statue came from Bubon, where an imperial shrine housed bronze sculptures of Roman emperors.

Soil and lead samples provided crucial scientific evidence which convinced the museum, Boz said.

"It was a long struggle. We were determined and patient and we won," Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said when the statue returned in July.

Türkiye has stepped up efforts to combat illicit antiquities trading and in 2025 alone secured the repatriation of 180 cultural artefacts.

- AI to identify trafficked objects -

Although its newly-developed AI-powered "TraceART" system was not involved in recovering the Marcus Aurelius statue, the tool helped identify two 16th-century Iznik tiles that were recovered from Britain this month.

Developed by the culture ministry, it scans images on sales platforms, auctions and social media to identify any cultural assets of Turkish origin that may have been trafficked, with flagged items sent for expert assessment.

TraceART went operational in 2025 and has since identified hundreds of objects for review, Boz said.

In January, Türkiye recovered an Anatolian-style marble head from Denver Art Museum in Colorado, said Burcu Ozdemir of the antiquities trafficking unit.

The museum contacted Ankara because the piece "had been donated by the wife of a US consul general who served in Istanbul in the 1940s", she said.

Türkiye's campaign also involves returning items to countries like Iran, China and Egypt.

"We returned two of the artefacts stolen from temples in China," Boz told AFP.

Türkiye also returned "a key of the Kaaba to Egypt" after realizing it had ended up in Türkiye illegally, she said of the cube-shaped stone structure at Makkah’s Grand Mosque.

- Ottoman tiles at the Louvre -

Türkiye is now seeking the repatriation of other antiquities taken during the Ottoman era: an ancient marble torso called the "Old Fisherman" from Berlin, and dozens of Iznik tiles held at France's Louvre museum.

"There's an assumption that artefacts taken in the 18th-19th centuries were acquired legally. We don't share that view," Boz said.

The illegal tile swap came to light in 2003 when one fell from the wall of an Ottoman-era library and on the back was the French manufacturer's mark.

The original and others were taken in the late 1800s by a Frenchman who claimed to be restoring them, then replaced them with fakes.

"We have repeatedly shared evidence with France and talked with the Louvre but no resolution has been reached," she said.

The tiles were on a panel by the tomb of Ottoman Sultan Selim II in the garden of the Hagia Sophia.

Today it bears a plaque in English, French and Turkish reading: "The tiles before us are replicas."

The originals are currently on display at a branch of the Louvre in Lens, 200 kilometers north of Paris, which says they were "bought in 1895".

The museum did not respond to several requests for comment from AFP.