Blue Shield Issues Independent Report

Arts Journal (Lee Rosenbaum)

Blue Shield, an international organization for the protection of cultural heritage, particularly in times of major crisis and upheaval (such as the recent uprising in Egypt), last week issued a report on an on-site "civil-military assessment mission" conducted from Feb. 12-16 by Blue Shield's president, Karl von Habsburg and Joris Kila, chairman of the International Military Cultural Resources Work Group, with help from Thomas Schuler of ICOM's Disaster Relief Task Force, who "coordinated the mission from Germany and did background research."

The report makes it clear that certain areas were kept off-limits to Blue Shield. At Saqqara, for example, "the museum and the main storage facilities next to the main office building were untouched according to the SCA inspector, but could not be visited."