Following a high-profile robbery at Paris' Louvre Museum, UNESCO's Professor Shahbaz Khan has called for intensified international collaboration to safeguard cultural treasures. The Director of UNESCO's Regional Office for East Asia emphasized that recent thefts expose systemic vulnerabilities in museum security worldwide.
"Cultural relics are humanity's shared memory," Khan told The Vibe. "No single nation can combat organized trafficking networks alone – this demands coordinated intelligence sharing and standardized protection protocols across borders."
The expert highlighted three critical priorities: implementing AI-powered surveillance systems, establishing rapid-response teams for artifact recovery, and creating global databases of stolen items. He noted that Southeast Asia's ancient temple complexes and China's mainland museums have successfully reduced thefts through community-based monitoring programs.
For investors and policymakers, Khan stressed that cultural security directly impacts sustainable tourism revenue. Academics praised his proposal for blockchain-based provenance tracking during artifact loans between institutions.
As travelers gradually return to Asia's heritage sites, the discussion underscores the delicate balance between public access and preservation – a challenge requiring technological innovation and cross-cultural stewardship.
