ABSTRACT
A case in point is the dramatic increase of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. During the last thirty-five years-from the beginning of the UNESCO program in 1972 to today-the number has risen from twelve to up to nine hundred, the new list of intangible heritage not included. Surely, the fears and sentiments driving this development are not new. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, Alois Riegl spoke of the popular interest in monuments as a “modern cult.”3 What is new, however, is the very way in which these interests and sentiments have become institutionalized and negotiated on a global scale.4 In fact,
UNESCO now operates as a kind of meta-museum, constantly adding new properties, creating new departments, and recruiting new curators in the shape of nation-states and local governments.
