World Monuments Fund (WMF) has found a host of specific human factors such as war, overdevelopment, lapse in oversight, and rising temperatures to be the major factors threatening over 200 heritage sites under review for its 2025 World Monuments Watch.
The data classifying such threats was collected in the course of determining which global landmarks will appear on the latest iteration of the Watch list, which will mark WMF's first since 2022 and be released mid-January 2025.
“Since its inception in 1996, the World Monuments Watch has been a crucial tool for WMF to understand the evolving needs of heritage sites and the communities that rely on them,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, CEO of World Monuments Fund. “Our data-driven approach has deepened our insights, enabling us to craft more effective strategies and take meaningful action where needed most. In the face of these issues, the 2025 Watch will demonstrate the potential for heritage preservation to help communities adapt and thrive within our dynamic world.”
Called the "cultural version of an endangered-species list…intended to raise awareness of artworks and structures in immediate peril" by The New York Times, the Watch has established itself as a leading voice in the heritage field. Throughout its 30 years, the Watch has evolved into an advocacy program collaborating with nominators to make sure local communities are heard and inovled with their site's preservation.
The 2025 Watch will emerge from WMF’s extensive review of 211 nominations from heritage professionals, local partners, and the general public in 69 countries. Though the Watch deliberation process is still underway, the nomination process quantifies details on the nature of the threats at the cultural heritage sites under discussion. This allows WMF to consider solutions or to innovate based on the organization's past responses to similar threats, and to sound the alarm by sharing this data while the Watch is prepared.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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