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Reference.org
International Council on Monuments and Sites
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<p>The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; French: <i>Conseil international des monuments et des sites</i>) is a professional association that works for the <a href="/facts/Conservation_and_restoration_of_cultural_property/epfKE7I1">conservation and protection of cultural heritage</a> places around the world. Now headquartered in <a href="/facts/Charenton-le-Pont/DLVnog3W">Charenton-le-Pont</a>, France, ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in <a href="/facts/Warsaw/0cRqN3pw">Warsaw</a> as a result of the <a href="/facts/Venice_Charter/H6VUYsqz">Venice Charter</a> of 1964 and offers advice to <a href="/facts/UNESCO/QSbkRv3o">UNESCO</a> on <a href="/facts/World_Heritage_Site/6AbWWKV4">World Heritage Sites</a>. </p><p>The idea behind ICOMOS dates to the Athens Conference on the restoration of historic buildings in 1931, organized by the <a href="/facts/International_Museums_Office/MB154jej">International Museums Office</a>. The <a href="/facts/Athens_Charter_(Preservation)/agNVlYyM">Athens Charter</a> of 1931 introduced the concept of international heritage. In 1964, the Second Congress of Architects and Specialists of Historic Buildings, meeting in <a href="/facts/Venice/Xzc2uVDg">Venice</a>, adopted 13 resolutions. The first created the International Charter on the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites, better known as <a href="/facts/Venice_Charter/H6VUYsqz">Venice Charter</a>; the second, put forward by <a href="/facts/UNESCO/QSbkRv3o">UNESCO</a>, created ICOMOS to carry out this charter. </p><p>ICOMOS currently has over 10,100 individual members in 153 countries, 110 national committees, and 28 international scientific committees. With rare exceptions, each member must be qualified in the field of conservation and a practicing landscape architect, architect, archaeologist, anthropologist, town planner, engineer, administrator of heritage, historian, art historian, <a href="/facts/Palaeontology/60n5yldd">palaeontologist</a> or <a href="/facts/Archive/BgCG3dxa">archivist</a>. </p><p>ICOMOS is a partner and founding member of the <a href="/facts/Blue_Shield_International/ktSc3v3X">Blue Shield</a>, which works to protect the world's cultural heritage threatened by war and natural disasters. </p>