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AUR students learned how to protect themselves and great works of art in a seminar led by Dick Drent, former security director at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and an expert on anti-terrorism and criminal profiling. To practice their skills, students went on a stealth mission at a local museum.

“I guarantee after today, you will never walk into a museum without looking at how easy it was to come in and how to escape,” said Drent, whose company, OmniRisk, advises curators and professionals at museums and heritage sites on how to protect their valuables -- and visitors.

Art and relics are under siege these days – stolen by terrorists to fund their activities or the mafia to use as a commodity or ransom for lower prison sentences. In recent years, visitors at museums and cultural sites have also been killed by suicidal gunmen and hostage takers.  

In this environment, everyone needs to be on guard.

The jury highly commended “the European cooperation between the Italian conservation experts and the Greek Orthodox Monastery which was undertaken in close consultation with the Egyptian authorities and has resulted in high-quality conservation work on an element of such an outstanding World Heritage Site as the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai. The documentation and quality of the work are exceptional”.