EPA > Activities > Official visits

From September 13 to 17, 2004, Dr. Nicholas Stanley-Price, Director-General of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) - an intergovernmental organization including 111 Member States since 2000, visited Benin, within the framework of the relations between Benin and ICCROM and especially to survey the work carried out by the School of African Heritage - EPA, in Porto-Novo.

Mr. F. Manzambi Vuvu, Dr. Stanley-Price,    and Mr. J. Bocco, on a guided tour of the    Abomey Museum

This is Dr Stanley-Price's first visit to Benin. This visit aimed to officially present to the Beninese governmental authorities the state of the EPA Endowment Fund created by ICCROM to support the operating costs of EPA. This is all the more vital as EPA is self-financed and does not receive any subsidies or contributions, whether from public or private sources. However, as for any organization, the activities of EPA cannot develop without permanent financial means for its operating costs. By creating the EPA Endowment Fund, ICCROM wanted to ensure permanent financial means for the school and thus ensure the perenniality of the establishment, whose work is essential for the safeguarding and the development of cultural heritage in Africa. With this intention, the Director-General of ICCROM had talks with the Beninese Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Integration (MAEIA), the Minister of Economy and Finance (MFE) and the Beninese Minister of Culture, Crafts and Tourism (MCAT).

During his stay, the Director-General of ICCROM participated in the EPA Board meeting, visited the Royal palaces of Abomey included on UNESCO's World Heritage List. To ensure the maintenance of this unique site in Benin, ICCROM has carried out considerable investments for the restoration, inventory and maintenance of the collections and for the renovation of the permanent exhibition.

Inauguration of the Cesare Brandi Resource    Centre: Dr. Nicholas Stanley-Price,    H.E. Vitaliano Gobbo, Honorary Consul    of Italy in Benin, and Mr. Godonou

The Director-General of ICCROM took the opportunity of his visit to Benin to meet and discuss with the students in training at EPA in the framework of the Africa 2009 Program of ICCROM. Lastly, he ended his stay by the inauguration of EPA's Resource centre (which was baptized Infothèque Cesare Brandi), which aims at becoming a centre of reference in the collecting and the diffusion of information on the conservation and the promotion of African cultural heritage.

EPA owes its existence to ICCROM who created it through the PREMA Program after the signature of a convention between ICCROM and the Université Nationale du Bénin, now called Université d'Abomey-Calavi (UAC).