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Why do people deliberately
destroy cultural heritage?

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By doing so,

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do they believe
they're erasing our history?

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Our cultural memory?

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It's true that we are losing
cultural heritage to erosion

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and natural disasters,

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but this is something
that is simply difficult to avoid.

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I'm here to show you today
how we can use pictures --

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your pictures --

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to reclaim the history that is being lost

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using innovative technology

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and the effort of volunteers.

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In the early 20th century,

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archaeologists discovered
hundreds of statues and artifacts

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at the ancient city of Hatra,

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in northern Iraq.

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Statues like this one
were found in fragments,

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some of them missing their heads or arms,

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yet the clothing that they are wearing

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and their pose

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can still tell us their story.

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For example,

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we believe that by wearing
a knee-length tunic

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and open bare feet,

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this was representative of a priest.

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However, with a closer look
at this particular piece,

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we can see that this tunic being worn
was elaborately decorated,

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which has led many researchers to believe

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this was actually a statue of a king
performing his religious functions.

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When the Mosul Cultural Museum
opened in 1952 in northern Iraq,

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this statue, as well as others,

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were placed there to preserve them
for future generations.

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Following the US-led invasion
of Iraq in 2003,

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a few statues and artifacts
were relocated to Baghdad,

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but this statue remained.

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Then in February of last year,
a video was released,

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and it instantly went viral.

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Maybe some of you remember seeing it.

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Here's a short clip.

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(Video) (Singing in Arabic)

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(Singing ends)

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Not a very pleasant sight, right?

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Did you notice anything
familiar in the video?

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There it is.

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There is that very statue,

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as it was toppled over,

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breaking into pieces.

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When Matthew Vincent and I saw this video,

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we were shocked.

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Since we are archaeologists
using innovative technology

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for digital preservation,

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an idea sprung to mind.

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Maybe we can crowdsource the images
that were taken of these artifacts

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before they were destroyed,

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to create digital reconstructions.

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If we can do that,

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maybe we can put them
into a virtual museum

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to tell that story.

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And so two weeks after we saw this video,

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we started the project
called Project Mosul.

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Remember the pictures of the statue
I showed you before?

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This is actually the crowdsourced
reconstruction of it

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before it was destroyed.

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Now, many of you may be wondering,

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how exactly does this work?

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Well, the key to this technology
is called photogrammetry,

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and it was invented here, in Germany.

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It is the technology that allows us
to use two-dimensional images

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taken of the same object
from different angles

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to create a 3D model.

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I know you may be thinking
this sounds like magic -- but it's not.

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Let me show you how it works.

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Here are two crowdsourced images
of the same statue.

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What the computer can do

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is it can detect similar features
between the photographs --

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similar features of the object.

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Then, by using multiple photos,

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in this case, it can begin
to reconstruct the object in 3D.

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In this case,

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you have the position of the cameras
when each image was taken,

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shown in blue.

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Now, this is a partial
reconstruction, I admit,

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but why would I say partial?

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Well, simply because the statue
was positioned against a wall.

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We don't have photographs
taken of it from the back.

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If I wanted to complete a full
digital reconstruction of this statue,

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I would need a proper camera,

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tripods, proper lighting,

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but we simply can't do that
with crowdsourced images.

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Think about it:

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How many of you, when you visit a museum,

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take photographs
of all parts of the statue,

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even the back side of it?

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Well, maybe if some of you find
Michelangelo's David interesting,

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I guess --

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(Laughter)

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But the thing is,

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if we can find more images of this object,

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we can improve the 3D model.

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When we started the project,

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we started it with
the Mosul Museum in mind.

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We figured we may get a few images,

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some people interested,

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make one or two virtual reconstructions,

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but we had no idea that we had sparked
something that would grow so quickly.

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Before we knew it,

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we realized it was obvious:

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we could apply this same idea
to lost heritage anywhere.

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And so, we decided to change
the name of the project to Rekrei.

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Then, in the summer of last year,

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"The Economist" magazine's media lab
reached out to us.

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They asked us,

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"Hey, would you like us
to build a virtual museum

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to put the reconstructions back inside,

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to tell the story?"

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Can you imagine us saying no?

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Of course not.

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We said yes!

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We were so excited.

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This was exactly
the initial dream of that project.

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And so now,

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any of you can experience
RecoVR Mosul on your phone,

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using Google Cardboard

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or a tablet or even YouTube 360.

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Here is a screenshot
from the virtual museum.

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And there it is ...

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the partial reconstruction of the statue,

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as well as the Lion of Mosul,

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the first reconstruction
completed by our project.

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Although the video doesn't explicitly show
the Lion of Mosul being destroyed,

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we have many other examples
of large artifacts being destroyed

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that were simply too large
to have been stolen.

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For example,

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the Gate of Nimrud in northern Iraq.

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This is a digital
reconstruction from before,

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and this is actually
during the destruction.

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Or the Lion of Al-Lāt, in Palmyra, Syria:

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before ...

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and after.

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Although virtual reconstructions
are primarily the main focus

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of our project,

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some people have been asking the question:

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Can we print them in 3D?

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We believe 3D printing
doesn't offer a straightforward solution

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to lost heritage.

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Once an object is destroyed,

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it's gone.

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But 3D printing does offer
an addition to tell that story.

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For example, I can show you here ...

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There is the statue from Hatra

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and the Lion of Mosul.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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Now, if you look closely,

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you'll notice that there are some parts
that have been printed in color,

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and some parts that are in white or gray.

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This part was added
simply to hold the statues up.

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This works the same way
if you visit a museum,

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and a statue is found in fragments;

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it's put together
for the people to see it.

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This makes sense, right?

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However, we're much more interested

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in what virtual reality
has to offer for lost heritage.

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Here is an example
of one of the tower tombs

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that was destroyed in Palmyra.

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Using Sketchfab's online viewer,

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we can show that we have reconstructed
three parts of the exterior of the tomb,

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but we also have photos of the inside,

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so we're beginning to create
a reconstruction of the wall

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and the ceiling.

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Archaeologists worked there
for many, many years,

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so we also have architectural
drawing plans of this lost heritage.

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Unfortunately, we are not only losing
cultural heritage to areas of conflict

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and at war --

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we're also losing it to natural disasters.

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This is a 3D model
of Durbar Square in Kathmandu,

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before the earthquake
that occurred last April ...

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and this is after.

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You may be thinking,

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you didn't create these 3D models
with only tourist photographs,

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and that's true.

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But what this represents

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is the ability for large, public
organizations and private industry

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to come together
for initiatives like ours.

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And so one of the major challenges
of our project, really,

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is to find photographs that were taken
before something happens, right?

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Well, the internet is basically a database
with millions of images, right?

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Exactly.

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So we have begun to develop a tool

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that allows us to extract images
from websites like Flickr,

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based on their geotags,

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to complete reconstructions.

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Because we're not only losing cultural
heritage to natural disasters and in war,

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but we're also losing it
to something else.

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Any idea, just looking
at these two pictures?

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Maybe it's a little difficult to remember,

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but only a few weeks ago,

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this was the example of human
destruction by human stupidity.

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Because a tourist in Lisbon
wanted to climb onto this statue

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and take a selfie with it --

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(Laughter)

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and pulled it down with him.

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So we're already finding photographs

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to complete a digital
reconstruction of this.

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We need to remember

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that the destruction of cultural heritage
isn't a recent phenomenon.

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In the 16th century,

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European priests and explorers burned
thousands of Maya books in the Americas,

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of which we only have a handful left.

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Fast-forward to 2001,

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when the Taliban blew up
the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.

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You see,

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cultural heritage
is about our shared global history.

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It helps us connect
with our ancestors and their stories,

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but we're losing pieces of it
every day to natural disasters

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and in areas of conflict.

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Of course, the loss of human life
is the most heartbreaking loss ...

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but cultural heritage offers us a way
to preserve the memory of the people

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for future generations.

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We need your help to reclaim
the history that is being lost.

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Will you join us?

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(Applause)