In the early stages of the project, we have collected all available and published data on the research themes which were utilised to provide much information on the historical framework and current debate on cultural heritage protection in war contexts. Then, research has been carried out extensively at major archives in Italy (especially in Palermo and Rome) and accessing to online sources (the USA NARA online record catalogue). All records have been traced, copied and arranged in a substantial documentary collection organised by sites and subjects which flow into an open-access, forthcoming book. Documents, pictures and maps tracked down and examined amount to approximately 1,600 units.
The satisfying and promising results obtained by the investigation in archives and data collection confirm that Sicilian archaeological sites, ancient monuments and museums were put at serious risk by military operations. As envisaged at the beginning of the project, research has mainly focused on vital case studies arranged by sites: Agrigento, Cefalù, Palermo and Selinunte. They include a variety of key contexts, as archaeological areas, museums, urban/countryside military construction sites and refuges for fine art objects. It has been demonstrated that the majority of damages, mostly caused by Allied bombing, occurred at urban sites and museums (e.g. in Palermo). Luckily, the most of archaeological collections remained undamaged and intact after having been transferred in safe shelters (like those in Bivona and San Martino delle Scale). The role of local and regional authorities, supervised by the higher Ministry of National Education, was crucial to safeguard and defend cultural heritage. On the whole, it can be inferred that the plans actualised to protect antiquities and museum in Sicily were successful although they had some limitations due to the lack of available funds provided by the national institutions (or limited by the strict war economy). Archival records demonstrate how the relationship between civilian and military authorities was often problematic. The necessity to protect antiquities frequently clashed with the impelling need to defend Italy against the enemy attacks: some sites (as Agrigento) were therefore militarised and the interference of the army was evident.
A major 2-day international conference, Antiquities, Sites and Museums Under Threat: Cultural Heritage and Communities in a State of War (1939-45), has been ‘virtually’ organised in October 2021 at Ghent University due to COVID-19 (that also caused made all research process particularly complex). The conference involved 15 international speakers presenting the cutting-edge research on antiquities at risk in war context and discussing about the most recent perspective in the field.
SICILYWAR has been disseminated to a major website. Dissemination has been carried out at international venues as follows: NIOD (Amsterdam, 03/2020), CAMWS (Birmingham, AL, 05/2020), EAA (Budapest, 08/2020), Accordia Lectures (London, 03/2021), MSA Annual Conference (05/2021) and WHA (Salt Lake City, UT, 07/2021).
Project’s publication outputs include: a) a book: Codename SICILYWAR: Archaeology, Museums and Social Networks Under Threat in Sicily during World War 2 (forthcoming, Archaeopress, open-access); it includes all records traced in archives; b) an edited volume arising from the conference organised in Ghent; c) a theoretical contribution on the ‘4-level’ system in Sicily (EAA Budapest 2020 conference proceedings); d) a peer-reviewed paper on the protection of cultural heritage in Cefalù in the 1940s.
