Venice in Peril Fund

The predecessor to the Venice in Peril Fund was the Art & Archives Rescue Fund (AARF), which was created as the British response to the 1966 Venice flood. Sir Ashley Clarke, former British Ambassador to Rome and at that time chairman of the British Italian Society, was asked to chair a committee to raise funds to help rescue artworks and buildings in Venice and Florence, which had also flooded. Besides Clarke, the trustees were Sir Kenneth Clarke, the Earl of Drogheda, Sir Frank Francis, Lionel Robbins and A. W. Tuke. The AARF continued its conservation work until it was reconstituted as the Venice in Peril Fund in 1971.

In 1971, UNESCO appealed to its member states to collaborate in helping to save the entirety of Venice. In response, Clarke re-founded the AARF as the Venice in Peril Fund. He set up a board of trustees whose stated objective was to help save and maintain the world-famous artistic and architectural treasures of Venice. John Julius, Viscount Norwich, joined as Chairman the same year,[4] with Clarke serving as the Vice Chair.[5]

Under the chairmanship of John Julius Norwich, who was supported by the efforts of trustees such as Clarke, Carla Thorneycroft, Sir John Pope-Hennessy and Nathalie Brooke, Venice in Peril became a leading force in the city's conservation.[6] Venice in Peril established itself at the forefront of the Venice conservation movement.[7]

To boost the funding efforts in 1977, Peter Boizot, the founder of Pizza Express, created the Pizza Veneziana. Until 2019 a percentage of the sale price of every Pizza Veneziana sold was donated to Venice in Peril.[8][9] £2 million were donated between 1977 and 2015.[10]

In 2003 Venice in Peril Fund organised a ‘state of knowledge’ conference on the lagoon of Venice, with the collaboration of Churchill College, Cambridge and Corila. The aim of the project was to gather together the work of scholars and experts in a cross-disciplinary effort to exchange knowledge and assess the challenges facing Venice and its lagoon. This resulted in two books, both commissioned by Venice in Peril. A scholarly and technical volume, Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and its Lagoons: State of Knowledge, was published in 2005 by Cambridge University Press,[11] and a more accessible book, The Science of Saving Venice, was published in 2004.[12] In 2009, another book commissioned by Venice in Peril was published: The Venice Report, Demography, Tourism, Financing and Change of Use of Buildings.[13]

In 2011, during the Venice Biennale, Venice in Peril mounted an exhibition of photographs of Venice by prominent photographers, including Candida Höfer, to raise awareness and funds. It was entitled Real Venice and received critical acclaim.[14]

In November 2019, Venice suffered its worst flooding since the foundation of the fund in 1966. A 2020 Venice in Peril appeal funded conservation efforts to restore and protect several public buildings that had been particularly badly affected by the flood.

By Venice in Peril's 50th anniversary in 2021, the Fund had completed over 75 conservation and restoration projects in Venice. The work continues, with recent major projects including the conservation of Canova's memorial in the Frari church and the Iconostasis in Torcello Cathedral in memory of John Julius Norwich. Venice in Peril's representatives continue to draw attention to the evolving challenges facing the city.[15]

Guy Elliott took up the post of Chair in April 2022 and Anthony Roberts became Vice Chair.