A History of WMF 1965-2007
What began as one man’s dream has become a leading force in international historic preservation
WMF
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) was founded in 1965 by James A. Gray (1909-1994), a retired US Army colonel with a keen interest in solving engineering problems and a passion for ancient sites. Having witnessed the extraordinary international campaign launched by UNESCO to move the Nubian Monuments at Abu Simbel to higher ground before the construction of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, Gray believed that far more could be done to preserve cultural heritage if only the private sector could be engaged in the effort. So he established the International Fund for Monuments, as WMF was first known. Gray was able to match donors to projects, launching early initiatives to restore the medieval rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, and work on the monuments of Easter Island. This included the unprecedented achievement of transporting one of the moai (the famous stone figures on Easter Island) to the US where it attracted large crowds.
When floodwaters inundated Venice in November 1966, they spotlighted the desperate condition of that city’s famed monuments. Colonel Gray and his nascent organisation stepped into the breach, spearheading the American response to the disaster. This began WMF’s involvement in Venice, an effort which continues to this day.
Since the 1960s, WMF has achieved an unmatched record of success in conservation, carrying out more than 450 projects in over 90 countries. As WMF continued to take on more and more projects around the globe, it became clear that conservation work at sites throughout Europe and in the United Kingdom would benefit from more localised management. It was at this time that WMF Britain was born.
WMF Britain founded
In 1990 WMF presented HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales with its annual Hadrian Award in recognition of his efforts in advancing the preservation of world architecture. In his acceptance speech he asked WMF to help conserve St George's Hall, Liverpool, which he described as, ‘one of the finest neoclassical buildings in the world’.
A few years later, a US $1 million gift from the great Anglophile benefactor Paul
Mellon enabled WMF to set up a British office. In 1995, WMF Britain began its work,
with St George’s Hall as one of its first projects, led by Viscount Norwich as chairman
and supported by a distinguished Board of Trustees.
Our constitution was to ‘conserve, restore and maintain for public benefit, buildings and monuments of historical and architectural value, wherever situated.’
Stone head from an Easter Island Moai being positioned in front of the Pan American Union in Washington D.C. in 1968
Our proud record in Britain
In the last ten years WMF Britain has raised nearly £14 million for UK and international sites. Our many notable successes include: the magnificent Marble Saloon at Stowe, Buckinghamshire; Selby Abbey in Yorkshire; St Vincent Street Church in Glasgow; Headfort House and the Browne Clayton Monument in Ireland; Roman mosaics on the Isle of Wight and a great funerary monument by Grinling Gibbons at Exton in Rutland.
Our most recent success was a comprehensive restoration of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s baroque masterpiece of St George’s, Bloomsbury, which cost £9.2 million. We have also played a major role in restoring WMF sites in Russia, India and Portugal.
WMF moves forward
The challenges WMF faces today are even more complex than in the 1960s. From climate change to development pressures to war and conflict, WMF continues to take a leadership role in setting a global agenda for historic preservation. WMF fosters public awareness of the fragility of our built environment and finds ways to conserve and protect it. Current initiatives include programmes dedicated to protecting Iraq’s Cultural Heritage and Sites in Conflict, the problems of preserving Modernism, as well as the special needs of European Fine Interiors and the Preservation Arts. WMF continues to be vigilant, to offer creative solutions, and to rise nimbly to new challenges as they appear.