Burninig culture

Aerial view of the fire

These past days a bitter story took the media: Naples was on fire. Monday morning the Naples Science Museum burned – or rather was set on fire, as it is suspected it was the Neapolitan Camorra. The so called Città della Scienza had consumed while the firefighters tried to extinguish the fire throughout the day. Damages are incalculable and only one of the buildings could had been saved. Obviously that represents an important grievance because of the amount of employees that now remain without a job as well because of the almost total destruction of the museum buildings and its heritage but, especially, we should remember the “City of Science” was one of the biggest investments of the city in the past years. With a high capital it had been built a modern museum with lots of interactive spaces, as it is used in the science museums; with touch screens, audiovisuals, and all kind high-tech new and expensive elements. Leaving aside the utility, sustainability and profitability of the project, the fact is that it had been decided to invest in this project and now in the course of one day everything is lost. So I ask myself, which value have today museums, culture and heritage around us? Which social influence has something that can be burned without regrets? Since long time ago armed conflicts have led to a loose in heritage materials, besides some kind of “right” interventions, like the fact of spoliation, which helped to save part of the material, or like the withdrawal of artworks during the 20^th Century wars, when the importance of the national heritage was starting to be looked after. However it is not even necessary to look to the past century, that still happens in the Middle East, where almost all the archeological heritage have been destroyed, or during the Arab Spring in Egypt, when a lot of mummies where taken off the museums. Watch out, though! Do not misunderstood my words and fall into a banal "save people regardless of culture" as that hapless David Bisbal's tweet in which the Spanish singer lamented the loss of tourism in Egypt because of the armed conflicts. The problem here is the low importance of art, culture and heritage in our society, harming it or even leaving it to die. In the same way that it's hard to see the heritage being lost because of a war it is also griefful to see it spoiled and forgotten, leaving it to the extent of criminal acts, violence or vandalism.

Guiomar Sánchez
@guiomar_sp