«Une coopération intellectuelle s’impose». The beginnigs of scientific methods applied to monument restoration

The 1930s represent an extremely important time for the history of monument conservation in Europe, and especially for the slow definition of heritage, also thanks to different forms of international cooperation. The pilot institution of this movement was the League of Nations which, through the activities of its numerous commissions, held hundreds of large conferences on the most diverse topics, making variety a fundamental tool to involve the most cogent forms of knowledge in this ambitious project. It was through debates and conferences, in particular the one in Athens in 1931, that the term heritage became more precise between the two wars, at the same time forming transnational awareness of the protection of works of art.