Five years after the creation of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones (ALIPH), Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture and Thomas S. Kaplan, President of the Foundation, hosted the second ALIPH Donors' Conference at the Louvre Museum in Paris on 31 January.

This meeting, opened by Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission, the Ministers of Culture of the United Arab Emirates, Noura Al Kaabi, and of Saudi Arabia, Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud, has gathered in the Khorsabad Court of the Louvre representatives of thirty countries including a dozen European states, international institutions (UNESCO, ICOM, ICOMOS, etc.) and private donors.

This second Conference brought together close to USD 90 million, more than was promised at the March 2017 meeting (USD 77.5 million). This capital will allow ALIPH to amplify its action over the next five years. ALIPH’s agility and responsiveness, which since 2018 has supported nearly 150 heritage protection projects in some 30 countries on four continents Iraq, Mali, Afghanistan, Yemen and northeastern Syria – were welcomed.

ALIPH’s first supporters – States (France, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Luxembourg, China, Morocco and Switzerland) and private donors (Thomas S. Kaplan, Gandur Foundation for Art and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) – were also joined by the TotalEnergies Foundation.

Many countries present at the Conference have provided political support to ALIPH, pending possible financial support in the coming months.

' ALIPH is the bet of a new multilateralism of action and results, agile and responsive, as close as possible to the ground », Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

' I welcome today’s strong international mobilization in favour of preserving heritage in conflict and post-conflict areas. It reflects our collective commitment to protecting heritage, which is our common good.  This conference was a decisive step that will allow ALIPH to anchor its mission in the long term, in collaboration with all its institutional, technical and scientific partners Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture.

« With considerable new financial and political support, the foundation approaches the future with confidence, ambition and an unchanged obsession: supporting those who, every day and often at the risk of their own lives, protect and rehabilitate this common memory of humanity’s cultural heritage Thomas S. Kaplan, Chairman of the ALIPH Foundation Board.

ALIPH was created in March 2017 in Geneva at the initiative of France and the United Arab Emirates, in response to the massive destruction of cultural heritage in recent years in the countries of the Sahel or the Middle East. In five years, ALIPH has become a central player in this field.