PRESS RELEASE

October 26, 2006

U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine Signs Grant To Preserve Devotional Objects at the National Museum of Vietnamese History

U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine signed a grant for VND 336,000,000 this afternoon, October 26, to restore and preserve 70 religious and devotional objects.  Ambassador Marine and Director of the Vietnamese History Museum, Mr. Pham Quoc Quan, participated in the signing ceremony with Dr. Dang Van Bai of the Ministry of Culture and Information.  The grant is part of the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation.

This eight month project will be conducted by experts in the Preservation Department of the Vietnamese History Museum which hosts the collection.  The project will restore the collection to its original state, thus prolonging the lives of the objects and reducing the danger of cracking and insect damage.

The deteriorating collection of 70 Buddhist and ancestral devotional artifacts includes altars, ancestral tablets, ritual trays, shrines, imperial equipage, carved chests, etc. and is dated from the Le-Nguyen Dynasty of the 18th and 19th centuries.  The collection is part of a long-standing tradition of ancestral worship by the Vietnamese.

The U.S. financial assistance for the project will help preserve a collection that is of great cultural, religious and historical significance.  It will also contribute to Vietnam’s effort in preserving its rich and diverse cultural heritage.  This cooperative assistance demonstrates American respect for Vietnam’s cultural heritage.

The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation was established by the U.S. Department of State in 2001 to help less developed countries preserve cultural heritage and to demonstrate U.S. respect for other cultures.  In 2006, the AFCP awarded grants worth $2.8 million to 87 projects in 76 countries, including the project with the Ministry of Culture and Information of Vietnam.  To date this Fund has supported 292 projects totaling $6.7 million.

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