2 March 2026 Last update:4 March 2026 On Monday 2 March, the Golestan Palace in Tehran, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was reportedly damaged by debris and the shock wave following an airstrike to the Arag Square, located in the buffer zone of the site in the Iranian capital. UNESCO continues to closely monitor the situation of cultural heritage in the (...)

On 17-18 February, the team of the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage participated in the COST Action “Cultural Property Protection for All” Kick-Off Conference, held in Podgorica, Montenegro. Prof. Kalliopi Chainoglou, Dr Ioannis Blatsos and Athina Fatsea represented the Chair and contributed as experts to the Working Group on Provenance and Traceability, which operates under the (...)

            To promote the exchange of classical literary works between China and the West and to deepen scholarly dialogue in this field, the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese School of Classical Studies at Athens co-hosted an international academic conference titled "The Formation of Classical Literary (...)

            Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis head of the illicit antiquities trafficking research for the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece has been interviewed by CNN. Read more >>

  The UNESCO virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects project, launched on 29th September 2025, is dedicated to digitising stolen cultural objects. The website aims to contribute to raising awareness among the general public of the consequences of illicit trafficking of cultural property as well as contributing to the recovery of stolen objects. Visitors will be able to explore virtual (...)

         

Corfu Literary Festival 2025 In collaboration with the Ionian University, under the auspices of its Scholars At Risk (SAR) programme and of its UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage, presented an expert panel on how the world of academia and further education is changing and how and why this affects us all. Is the determined promotion and funding of STEM curricula (...)

The 47th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (Paris, 6-16 July 2025) approved the inscription of the six Minoan Palatial Centers (Knossos, Phaistos, Zominthos, Zakros, Malia, Kydonia) on the World Heritage List (the recommendation of ICOMOS, an institutional advisor, to return the file due to a lack of required information was not accepted by the committee). The (...)

  UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage as a years-long supporter of Corfu Literary Festival is delighted to invite you to the eighth Corfu Literary Festival from Monday 8th to Sunday 14th September 2025. Corfu inspires the arts in all its forms and lives by the ethos of philoxenia (hospitality). In September, the island is a riot of wildflowers and sunshine, and we cannot imagine a (...)

  The UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage‑related Activities at the Ionian University has officially placed the CULTURIOUS platform under its auspices, marking the launch of a strategic cooperation focused on museum outreach, ethical digital engagement, and sustainable heritage practice. This (...)

FIRST LIVE SESSION OF THE “OUR HOMELAND IS LANGUAGE” NETWORK A Journey through Time with the Antikythera Mechanism Astypalaia, July 1 - 2, 2025 The Astypalaia High School and the Hellenic Library of Southern California are organizing the first live Session of the “Our Homeland is Language” Network, which will take place in Astypalaia, on July 1 and 2, 2025, with the following theme: “A (...)