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Why is heritage a priority in crises? Lazare Eloundou, Director for Culture and Emergencies, UNESCO - Moderator Alexander Kellner, Director of the National Museum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Marylene Barret Audouin, Cultural Heritage Conservator, iTE Ala Younis, artist When flames consumed the National Museum of Brazil on 2 September 2018, turning South America’s oldest museum and scientific institution into a ruin and devastating its collection of 20 million artefacts, it wasn’t just Brazilians who mourned. Not only had the world lost one of its largest resources of natural history and anthropology, but the tragedy became yet another example of the kind of devastating blow that has been dealt to humanity’s shared heritage in recent years, especially following the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Mali and Yemen in which cultural heritage has been targeted, looted or destroyed. Each participant in the final panel discussion of the first day of Culture Summit Abu Dhabi 2019 has a personal connection with some of these tragedies. 45