Fifth anniversary of the Roerich Room at the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia
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The year 2010 marks the 5th anniversary from the inauguration of the ‘Roerich Room’ at the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia. The forthcoming commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Roerich Pact will be dedicated also to this event of cultural significance to the Bulgarian public.
With a speech on the contemporary importance of the Roerich Pact and a concert by the teachers and students of the Pancho Vladigerov National Musical Academy, in the Roerich Room will be commemorated one of the great ideas of the 20th century: the protection of cultural treasures and those who create them. This idea was launched by the Russian artist, scholar, thinker and world renowned figure Nicholas Roerich. The “Banner of Peace” International Movement for the Protection of Culture founded by Roerich in the 1920s found resonance and support throughout the world.
The Roerich Pact was signed by 21 countries on April 15th 1935 in the Oval Office of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in Washington D.C. This treaty introduced the first internationally recognized flag for the identification and protection of cultural values – the ‘Banner of Peace’ (red circle with a triple red sphere in the circle on a white background) designed to protect the objects and institutions of cultural value in the same way as the Red Cross was intended to protect the wounded, the hospitals and medical personnel. Roerich laid the foundations of the modern international legal system for the protection of cultural values. The Hague Convention negotiated in 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict invokes the Roerich Pact in its preamble.
The 75th anniversary of the Roerich Pact and the institution of the ‘Banner of Peace’ will be commemorated in many countries. A series of cultural events will be held at the N.K. Roerich International Centre and Museum in Moscow, founded by Sviatoslav N. Roerich. A documentary exhibition dedicated to the Roerich Pact opened at the United Nations Office in Vienna on April 7th within the framework of the ‘Archaeology in Conflict’ International Conference organized under the auspices of UNESCO. Commemorative events dedicated to the Roerich Pact will also be held in Latvia, Estonia, Mexico, the Ukraine and Belarus. On April 15th, an exhibition entitled ‘Roerich’s Age’ will open at the Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” in St Petersburg, Russia, to which the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia will also contribute works from its holdings.
