“Preserving heritage is not just about preserving places. It is also about preserving skills.”
I had the pleasure of welcoming Bénédicte de Montlaur, President of the World Monuments Fund, the world’s largest private international organisation dedicated to preserving heritage.
Her career is exceptional: trained as a diplomat, she spent more than twenty years serving France in Damascus, at the Quai d’Orsay, on the UN Security Council and then as Cultural Counsellor in New York.
In 2019, she decided to lead the World Monuments Fund.
We spoke, of course, about monuments, but above all about the stories they tell: of history, culture and identity. And about all the skills needed to preserve them.
From Iraq to India by way of Japan, Bénédicte introduces us to communities and craftspeople whose skills are sometimes as fragile as the places they restore.
This also particularly resonated with Vever: the importance of passing on knowledge, craftsmanship and the intelligence of the hand.
A wonderful conversation with a dedicated, passionate woman who, at a certain point in her career, also knew when to take a different path and embark on an extraordinary adventure.
In this episode, Bénédicte reflects on:
- Her desire to discover the world from childhood, and her love at first sight for Egypt and the Arabic language.
- Crisis management in Libya at the UN Security Council, at the heart of the Arab Spring negotiations.
- France’s cultural influence abroad: a form of soft power more potent than we might think.
- Her arrival at the World Monuments Fund in 2019 and the institution’s profound transformation.
- The impact of climate change on world heritage: one in six sites is now at risk.
- The regeneration of the Potager du Roi at Versailles, which has become an international centre of excellence.
- The shared purpose of Vever and the WMF: preserving the intelligence of the hand.
- Why everyone has their own “little Notre-Dame” — that piece of heritage they hold close to their heart.
- How her experience as a woman in diplomacy and culture evolved over twenty years.
- Her definition of boldness: not being afraid, moving forward and listening to her inner voice.
