عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Culture

With Saudi Support, UNESCO Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects Unveiled at MONDIACULT 2025

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay speaks during the closing ceremony of the UNESCO-organized conference, in Barcelona, Spain, 01 October 2025. EPA/Quique Garcia
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay speaks during the closing ceremony of the UNESCO-organized conference, in Barcelona, Spain, 01 October 2025. EPA/Quique Garcia
TT
TT

With Saudi Support, UNESCO Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects Unveiled at MONDIACULT 2025

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay speaks during the closing ceremony of the UNESCO-organized conference, in Barcelona, Spain, 01 October 2025. EPA/Quique Garcia
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay speaks during the closing ceremony of the UNESCO-organized conference, in Barcelona, Spain, 01 October 2025. EPA/Quique Garcia

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched the world’s first Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects at MONDIACULT 2025, the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development that was held in Barcelona.

Supported by Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Fund at UNESCO, the Virtual Museum will feature more than 240 antiquities and fossils in its inaugural phase. Presented in advanced 3D technology, the museum offers visitors an unprecedented cultural experience.

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan described the launch as “a landmark in international cooperation to safeguard our shared human heritage. This is not merely a cultural project, but a commitment to cultural justice and the preservation of humanity’s memory.”

The minister underscored the Kingdom’s keenness, under the guidance of its leadership, to be at the forefront of countries supporting these efforts. He stressed that preserving heritage is both a civilizational duty and a human responsibility.

“The Kingdom has called for strengthening international cooperation to confront the phenomenon of illicit trafficking in cultural property, and to ensure the return of rights to their original owners in order to preserve the history of nations and safeguard shared values,” Prince Bader added.

The project was inaugurated at a special ceremony on the sidelines of MONDIACULT 2025, attended by ministers, senior officials, high-level delegations, and project partners.

The initiative forms part of international efforts to combat the illicit trade in cultural heritage, strengthen global partnerships, and safeguard heritage for future generations.

As a pioneering platform, the museum aims to raise awareness about the illegal trade in cultural property and its harmful impact on societies, while emphasizing the importance of restoring stolen objects to their places of origin.

Most Viewed

 
 
Culture

Monumental Cave Art on Paris’ Oldest Bridge Finally Opens, as the Public Steps and Sniffs Inside

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
TT
TT

Monumental Cave Art on Paris’ Oldest Bridge Finally Opens, as the Public Steps and Sniffs Inside

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)

For weeks, a black mountain loomed over the Seine where Paris’ oldest bridge should have been. On Monday evening, its doors finally opened.

Inside, Paris smells different. The air carries the scent of earth after rain — damp ancient stone, cellar walls, perhaps a trace of smoke.

Visitors step from the bright riverfront into a dark passage lined with glowing photographs of caves, as a low electronic pulse seems to breathe through the walls.

Beneath it all, the old cobblestones of the Pont Neuf rise and fall underfoot.

The Pont Neuf Cavern, a monumental installation by French street artist JR — also known as the French Banksy — is free to enter around the clock through June 28.

Made largely from printed fabric and air, it transforms the 17th-century bridge into an artificial cavern rising 18 meters (59 feet) above the Seine.

“It feels like the city has disappeared,” said Léa Martin, a 22-year-old art student from Lyon on Tuesday. “You know the river is right outside, but for a moment you’re somewhere ancient.”

Paris steps in and sniffs history

The smell is central to the illusion.

Olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse created two shifting scents: drawing on geosmin and isoborneol, compounds associated with the aroma released when rain strikes dry earth.

It changes along the crossing: first wet earth and mineral dampness, then something warmer, smokier and faintly animal.

“Usually I cross here without looking up once,” said Michel Dupré, a 67-year-old retiree, blinking as he emerged into daylight. “Today I felt the stones under my feet. And smelled them too. It makes you walk like a child again.”

A sound installation by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of the French electronic duo Daft Punk, accompanies the work, filling the cavern with low rumbles, echoes and pulses.

Completed in 1607, the Pont Neuf — despite its name, “New Bridge” — is the oldest bridge still standing in Paris.

JR’s installation asks people to experience the familiar crossing through their noses, ears and feet.

It also pays tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose 1985 wrapping of the bridge in pale golden fabric drew an estimated 3 million visitors.

Their work covered the Pont Neuf in light.

The dark side JR sends visitors into darkness.

“You enter into the darkness,” he has said, “and emerge into the light on the other side.”

Visitors can also raise their phones to activate an augmented-reality experience developed with tech company Snap.

Digital bats trail light through the cave, passing bodies leave ghostly traces and a dancer materializes in space.

JR has linked the work to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows for reality. Today’s cave walls, he argues, are screens and the algorithms that shape what people see. Yet the installation’s strongest effects require no phone.

“It’s completely strange,” said Nadia Benali, 34, smiling beside the artificial cliffs. “Paris needs things that make people stop.”

When the cave closes, its fabric will be reused or recycled.

The mountain will vanish, traffic will return and the Pont Neuf — older than the French Revolution — will emerge into the light once more.

Culture

A Rare First Edition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ Complete with Spelling Mistakes Is up for Auction

A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

A Rare First Edition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ Complete with Spelling Mistakes Is up for Auction

A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)

A rare first-edition copy of “Wuthering Heights,” complete with spelling mistakes, is up for auction for the first time in more than a century, as Emily Brontë’s tragic, tempestuous romance gains new fans through a big-screen adaptation.

Christie’s auction house said Monday that it's the first copy of the novel in the publisher’s original cloth binding to be auctioned since 1908. Only about 250 copies of the first edition were printed, and this one has been in a private library since shortly after its publication in 1847.

“The vast majority of surviving copies were rebound for collectors or libraries, meaning original cloth examples are now extremely scarce,” said Christie’s books and manuscripts specialist Mark Wiltshire.

Being sold along with a copy of sister Anne Brontë’s “Agnes Grey,” it’s expected to sell for between 400,000 pounds and 600,000 pounds ($540,000 and $800,000) at a June 30 auction in London. Both books carry the male pen names the sisters adopted to get published: Ellis Bell for Emily and Acton Bell for Anne.

“Wuthering Heights” was rushed to publication after the success of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” and the first edition is notorious for its typographical errors including, Wiltshire noted, the occasional misspelling of the word “heights.”

Emerald Fennell ’s recent movie with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as mismatched pair Cathy and Heathcliff is the latest work to be inspired by — and take liberties with — Brontë’s brooding, Gothic tale.

The novel shocked some critics when it was published, with one in 1848 decrying its “vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.”

Since then, Wiltshire said, it has “moved beyond literature to become a cultural touchstone,” inspiring art, music — notably Kate Bush’s pop-operatic 1978 song — and multiple film adaptations.

“It remains a work that artists return to again and again because of its emotional force, its atmosphere, and its psychological intensity, ensuring its place not only in literary history but in wider cultural imagination,” Wiltshire said.

Culture

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4
TT
TT

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

The Red Sea Film Foundation has extended the application deadline for the sixth edition of the 48-Hour Film Challenge to July 4, 2026, allowing more young Saudi citizens and residents the opportunity to take part in the initiative aimed at discovering and supporting emerging filmmakers, SPA reported.

Organized in partnership with the Red Sea International Film Festival, the French Consulate General in Jeddah, and Alliance Française, the challenge is open to aspiring filmmakers aged 18 to 25, SPA reported.

Participants will form creative teams and compete to produce a short film within 48 hours after completing specialized mentorship workshops.

The two winning teams will receive awards, while their team leaders will earn an artistic residency in France in 2027. The winning films will also be screened at the next edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival.