CARIPLO FOUNDATION
  "participating in a venture
    that seemed impossible"



     The project "Archeologia per i valori" ("Archeology for values"), under the aegis of the Cariplo Foundation, develops a rich and intense program linked to the model site of the ancient city of Urkesh, one of the oldest in history.

     Through a major grant, the Foundation has set in motion a new and strong dynamics for the funding of our association. It is a pivot of the philanthropic philosophy of the Cariplo Foundation that the subsidy should be not only a monetary donation, but also a real sharing of ideas and values. The conversations with the managers of the Foundation are a source of moral support, as well as the funds provided are the source of our concrete achievements, being also as a stimulus for other founders.

     In its preface to the catalog of an exhibition in Beirut, the President Giuseppe Guzzetti has eloquently expressed the collaborative tone of the participation of the Fondazione Cariplo in our project:

     "[Among the philanthropic activities supported in its first twenty-five, many] are linked to the Foundation's commitment to protecting the environment and the territory, and the support of intellectual and artistic endeavors.
     The publication [of the catalogue] is an important testimony to what we mean when the Foundation engages in supporting projects for the preservation of works of art and monuments of the past. The project described here, realized by the Buccellatis and their team, carries in itself many elements: study, science, concrete intervention with effort and passion.
     With this initiative - the merit goes entirely to those who set it in motion - our Foundation has given coherence to its mission, contributing to the preservation of a heritage that holds enormous value and is in danger of being lost, making an exception to the rules that normally keep us committed to supporting projects in Italy, mainly in Lombardy and in the provinces of Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. The project was so beautiful and rich in symbolic meanings that the Foundation agreed to do its part in an enterprise that seemed impossible.
     The project was so beautiful and rich in symbolic meanings that the Foundation agreed to do its part in an enterprise that seemed impossible. Therefore we are proud and happy to be able to read the results of our efforts, which this publication abundantly shows."
     We are especially grateful to Francesca Zanetta, Commissario della Fondazione Cariplo, for her support and for the enlightened interest with which she follows our project. It is the best example of how the synergy of ideals can make it possible to realize in a very concrete way projects that, at first, seem indeed "impossible."