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Saudi Culture, Commerce Ministers Sign MoU to Empower Entrepreneurs in Cultural Sector

The partnership seeks to empower cultural entrepreneurs and organizations - SPA
The partnership seeks to empower cultural entrepreneurs and organizations - SPA
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Saudi Culture, Commerce Ministers Sign MoU to Empower Entrepreneurs in Cultural Sector

The partnership seeks to empower cultural entrepreneurs and organizations - SPA
The partnership seeks to empower cultural entrepreneurs and organizations - SPA

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan and Minister of Commerce and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monsha’at) Majid Al-Kassabi signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday at the Ministry of Culture in Al-Bujairi district, Diriyah.

According to SPA, the MoU aims at fostering collaboration between the Ministry and Monsha’at, particularly through business incubators and accelerators tailored to the cultural sector.
The partnership seeks to empower cultural entrepreneurs and organizations by offering targeted training programs designed to address sector-specific needs. It also includes strategic consulting services to strengthen entrepreneurs' skills and advance their projects through innovative, sustainable approaches. These efforts aim to generate substantial economic and cultural impacts, promote awareness, and raise knowledge about investment opportunities and growth potential in the cultural sector.
Key elements of the agreement focus on enhancing commercial innovation and integrating modern technologies for small and medium-sized cultural enterprises, ultimately contributing to a thriving cultural landscape and bolstering their role in the local economy.
The MoU aligns with the Ministry of Culture’s broader strategy to build strategic partnerships across sectors. It aims to empower entrepreneurs and innovators by providing access to essential resources and opportunities, advancing the cultural sector, and fostering a climate of creativity and innovation in line with the objectives of the National Strategy for Culture under Saudi Vision 2030.

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Culture

Iran Says Museums and Historic Sites Damaged in War

FILED - 10 March 2026, Iran, Tehran: A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) rescue teams works at the site of a building damaged in a US-Israeli airstrike in Resalat Square. Photo: -/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 10 March 2026, Iran, Tehran: A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) rescue teams works at the site of a building damaged in a US-Israeli airstrike in Resalat Square. Photo: -/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Iran Says Museums and Historic Sites Damaged in War

FILED - 10 March 2026, Iran, Tehran: A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) rescue teams works at the site of a building damaged in a US-Israeli airstrike in Resalat Square. Photo: -/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 10 March 2026, Iran, Tehran: A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) rescue teams works at the site of a building damaged in a US-Israeli airstrike in Resalat Square. Photo: -/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Iran's cultural heritage and tourism ministry said Saturday at least 56 museums and historic sites across the country have been damaged, as the Middle East war entered its 15th day.

In Tehran, US-Israeli strikes damaged the UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace in the early days of the conflict, local media reported.

The palace complex is one of the oldest sites in the Iranian capital and once served as the residence of the Qajar dynasty.

The ministry said Tehran has recorded the highest number of damaged monuments, with 19 suffering varying levels of harm.

The vast Naghsh-e Jahan Square, a 17th-century architectural jewel in the heart of the central Iranian city of Isfahan, has also been damaged.

In the port of Siraf, in Bushehr province, several houses were hit in the historic quarter, home to many century-old buildings.

UNESCO, the UN's culture agency, told AFP on Friday it was concerned about hundreds of historic sites in Iran, Israel and Lebanon that have been damaged or threatened by the war.

Culture

Ukraine's 'Origami Deer' Sculpture Rescued from Frontline Tours Europe

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova (R) and Ukrainian curator of the 'Security Guarantees' project Leonid Marushchak pose in front of the 'Origami Deer' sculpture in Prague on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)
Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova (R) and Ukrainian curator of the 'Security Guarantees' project Leonid Marushchak pose in front of the 'Origami Deer' sculpture in Prague on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)
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Ukraine's 'Origami Deer' Sculpture Rescued from Frontline Tours Europe

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova (R) and Ukrainian curator of the 'Security Guarantees' project Leonid Marushchak pose in front of the 'Origami Deer' sculpture in Prague on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)
Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova (R) and Ukrainian curator of the 'Security Guarantees' project Leonid Marushchak pose in front of the 'Origami Deer' sculpture in Prague on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)

An "Origami Deer" statue rescued from a Ukrainian city destroyed and occupied by Moscow's army is touring six European countries before featuring at the 61st Venice Biennale, which has sparked outrage over the inclusion of Russian artists.

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova created the concrete work with her colleague Denys Ruban in 2019 for a park in the eastern city of Pokrovsk to replace a Soviet-era military plane displayed there.

In 2024, Kadyrova and historian Leonid Marushchak removed the deer, shaped like a paper origami, as Russian troops closed in and then occupied Pokrovsk.

The sculpture will be the main feature of the Ukrainian pavilion, named Security Guarantees, at the Venice Biennale.

It will feature alongside Russian exhibits at the event that started in 1895 and comprises festivals, art and architecture exhibitions running from May 9 to November 22.

The decision to invite Russian artists, banned from the 2022 and 2024 editions after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has sparked international uproar with the European Union threatening to cut funding for the Biennale.

"It's very important for us to see how the entire world reacts to the situation, supporting us and opposing Russia's participation," Marushchak told AFP.

"If the Russians want to show their culture, they might as well organize a biennale in Pokrovsk which they have destroyed," he added.

En route to Venice, the deer has been exhibited in Warsaw, Vienna and Prague and will continue on to Berlin, Brussels and Paris.

Displaced from its pedestal, the deer symbolizes "millions of Ukrainians who have lost their home" and moved abroad, Kadyrova told AFP during a stopover in Prague.

The resemblance to paper origami refers to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 which saw Ukraine yielding its nuclear arsenal to Russia in exchange for security guarantees that did not materialize.

"So it's no more than paper," Kadyrova said.

Marushchak has been evacuating works of art from eastern Ukraine since the war started.

He has saved scores of objects, often taking huge risk with his team, to protect them from looting or theft.

One of the most dramatic rescue operations involved a 700-year-old stone lion statue evacuated from a museum in Bakhmut in 2023, just before the Russian army took the city, as Marushchak's car was hit by a shell on the way out.

"Other evacuations were difficult in that we didn't succeed as much as we wanted because the front line was too close and the danger was too big," Marushchak told AFP.

The Venice Biennale typically attracts more than 600,000 visitors to pavilions set up by participating countries.

Kadyrova said the Ukrainian team was not planning any protest over Russia's participation as "it's up to politicians".

"But I hope that some community will gather to pressure the Biennale, pressure Italy, and I hope that it will not happen."

Culture

'Talking Drum' Looted by France in 1916 Back in Ivory Coast

A crate containing the Djidji Ayokwe drum, at the airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
A crate containing the Djidji Ayokwe drum, at the airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
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'Talking Drum' Looted by France in 1916 Back in Ivory Coast

A crate containing the Djidji Ayokwe drum, at the airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
A crate containing the Djidji Ayokwe drum, at the airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)

The Djidji Ayokwe "talking drum", which was looted by French colonial troops in 1916 and taken to France, arrived back in Ivory Coast Friday, in the latest repatriation of stolen artifacts.

The wooden drum, more than three meters (10 feet) long and weighing 430 kilos (950 pounds), was used by the Ebrie tribe to transmit messages.

It was officially handed over on February 20 after France's parliament approved removing the artifact from the national museum collections to enable its return.

Ivory Coast had asked in late 2018 for the return of the Djidji Ayokwe among 148 works of art taken during the colonial period.

It arrived aboard a specially chartered plane at Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan and remained inside a huge wooden crate stamped "fragile", AFP journalists saw.

"It's an historic day and I feel deep emotion," Culture Minister Francoise Remarck said, welcoming its arrival at the airport, where the Ebrie community also sang and played drums.

"We are living a moment of justice and remembrance," the minister added.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised in 2021 to send the drum and other artifacts back home to the west African country.

It is one of hundreds of objects France is preparing to send back to Africa, with the efforts set to be accelerated by the passing of a new law to authorize mass repatriations.

"We are happy and relieved to know that this sacred piece of our culture is back on its native land," Aboussou Guy Georges Mobio, an Ebrie village chief, told AFP.

The drum will initially be held in a "safe space" to allow it to acclimatize, the culture minister said.

It is due to go on display at the Museum of Civilizations in Abidjan which has been specially renovated.

The "talking drum" was used by the Ebrie community to warn of danger, mobilize for war or call villagers to ceremonies.

It was seized by colonial authorities in 1916 before being shipped to France in 1929 and exhibited in Paris.

Senegal and Benin have also asked for the repatriation of their treasures.

In late 2020, the French parliament adopted a law providing for the permanent return to Benin of 26 artifacts from the royal treasures of Dahomey.

The return of cultural artifacts taken from ex-colonies in Africa and elsewhere has become a sensitive issue, with museums, institutions and collectors in Europe and the United States facing pressure to give them back.