UNESCO and Arius team up to digitize cultural heritage

UNESCO has signed a cooperation agreement with Arius Technology Europa Italia Srl to create ultra-high-resolution digital copies of major archives, artworks and heritage materials. The first scan phase is set for the second half of 2026 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, with open-format files meant to improve long-term access and preservation.

Why it matters: - The partnership aims to preserve fragile cultural and documentary assets that can be damaged by handling, time or conflict. - UNESCO will receive high-resolution digital files in open formats, which supports long-term access and reduces reliance on proprietary software. - The work could help expand digital preservation methods beyond archives to heritage objects and sites worldwide.

What happened: - UNESCO and Arius Technology Europa Italia Srl signed a Cooperation Agreement on October 2. - The agreement covers preservation, valorization and broader access to major cultural and documentary heritage materials. - Julien Pellaux, UNESCO Director of Partnerships, and Marco Antonio Soriano, chief executive officer of Arius Technology, signed the deal. - The first digitization phase is scheduled for the second half of 2026 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The details: - The initial scan list focuses on fragile, oversized and non-standard archival materials where 3D scanning adds clear value. - Items slated for digitization include selected works from the UNESCO art collection and emblematic architectural spaces inside UNESCO’s historical headquarters building. - The campaign also covers the original register of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. - UNESCO’s poster collection is included, with original works by artists such as Sonia Delaunay. - Other priorities include the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation Livre d'Or, several UNESCO Livres d’Or and the most recent guest book signed by Pope Léon XIV. - The project includes the UNESCO Human Rights exhibition kit. - Early, uniquely formatted issues of the UNESCO Courier are also on the list. - Resulting files will be delivered to UNESCO using open, format-agnostic standards, including the Stanford Polygon format (PLY). - The agreement also opens a path to integrate Arius scanning into UNESCO’s “Dive into Heritage” initiative. - That broader use case would support digital capture of sculptures, mosaics, frescoes and rock-art heritage sites. - UNESCO and Arius Technology plan to jointly develop a documentary film about the digitization work. - Arius Technology will provide 2D and 3D digitization systems designed to capture micro-reliefs, textures and structural properties that conventional photography or scanning may miss. - The project is pro bono. - Arius will be supported by Kamanga.io, Awa Piql and ABB Robotics.

Between the lines: - The agreement signals a shift from isolated digitization projects to a more scalable heritage-preservation workflow. - Open standards are a practical safeguard here because they make future migration and reuse easier for institutions that need archives to outlive current software cycles. - The inclusion of both documents and physical spaces suggests UNESCO is treating heritage as both an archival and architectural record.

What's next: - UNESCO and Arius Technology will begin the first digitization phase in Paris in the latter half of 2026. - The partners will move toward documentary production alongside the scanning work. - The broader integration into “Dive into Heritage” could extend the technology to additional cultural sites and objects if the effort progresses beyond the initial phase.

The bottom line: - UNESCO is using high-resolution digitization to build durable digital surrogates for irreplaceable heritage materials, while also creating a template for future preservation work at scale.

More information: UNESCO