TEHRAN – Iran’s tourism minister on Monday publicized the launch of a special association for cultural heritage benefactors to raise funds for urgent restoration projects.

“A cultural heritage benefactors' association has recently been launched to help sustain the (required restorations of) historical monuments across the country,” Ezzatollah Zarghami said.

He made the remarks in the opening ceremony of a pomegranate harvest festival, which is annually held in Saveh, a semi-arid county famed for that treasured fruit.

Referring to the insufficiency of government funding to safeguard all historical monuments countrywide, the minister said government budgets are not enough for [the restoration of some] 36,000 historical monuments that exist in the country.

“Although the government’s budgets for cultural heritage increased by 50% this year, it is still not enough.”

For this purpose, the association of cultural heritage benefactors has been set up so that we can take advantage of the people's capacity to restore buildings and historical monuments and witness the sustainability of historical monuments, the minister explained.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the minister pointed to having lease agreements as a solution for some historical monuments to ensure their sustained maintenance.  

“Renting historical works that are not considered exquisite is another way to preserve and restore them,” Zarghami said.

The minister said investors (tenants) in this sector under the supervision of the Cultural Heritage Ministry [and based on its criteria] may launch profitable businesses such as traditional restaurants.

Over the past couple of years, hundreds of Iranian historical sites and monuments have been auctioned to be temporarily ceded to the private sector reportedly aimed at achieving higher productivity and better maintenance.

As the minister said lack of a sufficient government budget for the restoration of all centuries-old sites is the main reason behind the ceding project.

This trend is observed under the close supervision of the Revitalization and Utilization Fund for Historical Places, however, there have been many opponents saying the scheme will not result in better maintenance in some cases.

There have been reports that some of the historical monuments have been mistreated by private investors, such as damages caused to the walls, and arches, or the lack of proper restoration. 

Upon an initiative scheme, the Fund (known by its Persian acronym Saabta) provides the opportunity for privately-owned businesses to run certain old structures to be maintained and repurposed into hotels, traditional restaurants, or lodging places.

According to cultural heritage officials, this sort of investment seems to be attractive for private investors, because accommodation in [well-preserved] monuments is attractive for both domestic and foreign tourists.

Iran hosts some of the world’s oldest cultural monuments including bazaars, museums, mosques, bridges, bathhouses, madrasas, and gardens, as well as rich natural and rural landscapes some of which have been registered on the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage list.

AFM