Venetian Heritage is an international non-profit organization with offices in Venice and New York. It operates within the framework of the UNESCO-International Private Committees Joint Programme for the Safeguarding of Venice. Venetian Heritage supports cultural projects through conservations, exhibitions, publications, conferences, studies and research, with the aim of making the world more aware of the immense legacy of the art of Venice both in Italy and in those areas once part of the Republic of Venice.
Among the most important projects undertaken in Venice and supported by Venetian Heritage are: the cleaning of the façade of the Church of Gesuiti, the façade of the Church of San Zaccaria (one of the finest examples of early Venetian Renaissance architecture), and the more recent restoration of the splendid Gothic altarpiece in gilded silver in the Church of San Salvador (a work also made possible through the support of the Maison Louis Vuitton).
Venetian Heritage has also begun a vast campaign of restoration in the territories that were once part of the Serenissima’s domain and has awarded numerous grants for the training of specialized restorers. The façade of the Trogir Cathedral in Croatia was restored in collaboration with the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, as well as the Orsini Chapel (winning the 2003 Europa Nostra-European Community award for the year’s best restoration). In cooperation with a number of co-donors such as JTIJapan Tobacco International and the Regione del Veneto, Venetian Heritage has recently financed the restoration of the magnificent façade of the Cathedral of St. Mark on Korcula, an important Dalmatian island which was Venetian from 1200 to the fall of the Serenissima in 1797.
In Padua, Venetian Heritage, in collaboration with the Ca.Ri.Pa.Ro. Foundation, has financed the cleaning of the famous Cappella dell’Arca di Sant’Antonio in the Basilica of the same name.
In Turkey, Venetian Heritage has funded the refurbishment of the fifteenth-century icon Panaghia Pausolypi in the Church of the Holy Trinity Monastery on the island of Halki.
In Albania it has financed preliminary research on the four Venetian fortresses of Butrint (in collaboration with the Rothschild Foundation).
Venetian Heritage has also organized and financed various exhibitions including: Treasures of Croatia restored by Venetian Heritage; Tintoretto at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome and The gilded silver altarpiece of San Salvador at the Bode Museum in Berlin. The Treasures of the Venice Ghetto, restored by Venetian Heritage have been exhibited in New York at Sotheby’s, at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, at the Ca’ d’Oro in Venice, at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna and at the Art Gallery of West Australia in Perth as well as the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme in Paris.
On the occasion of the five-hundredth anniversary of the creation of the Jewish Ghetto in Venice in 2016, Venetian Heritage has financed the project for the restoration and reorganization of the Jewish Museum of Venice.
With the generous support of the architect Peter Marino, a refind collector of bronze sculptures and a Venetian Heritage trustee, we are currently restoring three fifteenth-century sculptures depicting Mars, Adam and Eve by Antonio Rizzo, which are preserved in the museum of the Doge’s Palace in Venice.
With the support of Samsung and within the framework of the UNESCO-International Private Committees Joint Programme for the Safeguarding of Venice, Venetian Heritage has financed the installation of exhibition spaces in the first five halls in the new wing of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.