Venice is putting 110,000 restoration records online

UNESCO and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini said on October 30, 2026, that they are digitizing the UNESCO archive on the safeguarding of Venice. About 110,000 documents, plus 6,000 photographs and audiovisual materials, will be opened over time to scholars and the public. The papers had been kept at the UNESCO office in Venice. They have moved to the foundation's digital centre on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, which will do the scanning over the next two years.

The files cover UNESCO's international campaign for Venice from 1966 to 1992, and a joint program with private international committees from 1992 to 2015. The photographs run from about 1970 to 2017. That 1966 date is the year of the Aqua Granda, the flood that pushed a wide repair effort into motion. The project now is the records of that repair, not a retelling of the flood. Descriptions will go into an AtoM catalogue, and photographs and audiovisual files are due on UNESCO's archives platform. Students and four young fellows are part of the work, training in how a digitization studio runs.

Magdalena Landry, director of UNESCO's regional office in Venice, said the files show the people, decisions, and skills behind the repairs, not only the finished jobs. Gianfelice Rocca, president of the foundation, described the archive as something the city and outside researchers can both use. The announcement is the start of that scanning. It does not mean all 110,000 documents are already online.