- Venice in Peril Fund
The Venice in Peril Fund is a British
registered charity . It raises funds to restore and conserve works of art and architecture inVenice , and to investigate ways to protect them against future risks, particularly rising sea levels.The Venice in Peril Fund was established in 1966 by the former British
ambassador toItaly , SirAshley Clarke , after floods inFlorence andVenice threatened their historic art treasures. At the first meeting wereJohn Julius Norwich (historian and writer), Carla Thorneycroft (Italian-born wife of Conservative MPPeter Thorneycroft ), andNatalie Brooke (wife ofHumphrey Brooke , the secretary of theRoyal Academy ). Originally named the Italian Art and Archives Rescue Fund, it became the Venice in Peril Fund in 1971. It receives a significant level of funding from the sale of the Pizza Veneziana at branches ofPizza Express .As of 2007, the Fund has contributed to the conservation and restoration of 23 buildings in Venice, including the Gothic
Porta della Carta of theDoge's Palace . Three-quarters of its funds have been spent on religious buildings, including the late Gothic church of theMadonna dell'Orto inCannaregio , the ancient Veneto-Byzantine aisled church ofSan Nicolò dei Mendicoli , and the 16th centuryCappella Emiliani on the cemetery island ofSan Michele . A new project is the restoration of a hydraulic crane inside theArsenale , built byArmstrong Mitchell in Newcastle in 1883, one of only two remaining in the world.The water level in the Venice has risen 23 cm since 1900, due to a combination of
subsidence and the level of the Venicelagoon rising. Venice in Peril organised asymposium inLondon in 1998 to discuss the risk to low-lying cities, including Venice, as a result of rising sea levels, and funded the creation ofresearch fellowship atChurchill College, Cambridge from 2001 to 2004 to investigate ways to protect Venice from rising sea levels. A conference was held inCambridge in 2003, and a book "The Science of Saving Venice" was published in 2004.References
* [http://www.veniceinperil.org/history.htm History]
External links
* [http://www.veniceinperil.org Organisation homepage]
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