NEW YORK CITY.- The World Monuments Fund (WMF) and American Express Company today announced grants totaling $1 million made by American Express through WMF’s World Monuments Watch program. The grants will aid twelve historic landmarks that are on WMF’s 2002 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. These are located throughout the world, from Egypt (Valley of the Kings), to Malaysia (George Town Historic Enclave), to Peru (San Pedro de Morropé Chapel), to Italy (Cinque Terre), to the United States (San Juan Capistrano Mission Church). The sites receiving grants suffer from the effects of such factors as neglect, pollution, civil strife, poorly managed tourism, and exposure to the elements. American Express’s ten-year, $10 million commitment to the World Monuments Fund to preserve endangered sites has enabled WMF to leverage millions more from local and national governments, global corporations, foundations, and individuals, and has encouraged new activism worldwide.

Launched by WMF in 1995, the World Monuments Watch program and its List of 100 Most Endangered Sites sets priorities and raises funding for imperiled historic, artistic, and architectural sites worldwide. The World Monuments Watch list is often the only hope for cultural heritage sites facing loss or destruction.

Bonnie Burnham, WMF president, states, "The World Monuments Fund’s Watch program responds to the urgent, worldwide need to preserve landmarks that bear witness to the achievements of human cultures. American Express, which has provided such generous support, has helped to ensure the success of this important program since its founding. These valuable grants enable WMF to give the caretakers of these treasures the means to implement conservation measures that can help save the sites for present and future generations."

"Preserving cultural landmarks from so many parts of the world helps all of us appreciate the achievements of past generations," said Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express Company. "It helps bring today’s world closer together by promoting travel and tourism and, most importantly, it ensures that the monuments from our past will inspire the generations of our future."

World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites
Every other year, the World Monuments Fund invites governments and nongovernmental organizations around the world to nominate endangered sites for inclusion on the List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. WMF then brings together an independent panel of experts to review the hundreds of nominations received for the list and select the most compelling sites with the greatest threats.

Ranging from such widely known landmarks as the Great Wall of China and the Chateau of Chantilly, in France, to the lesser-known New Jerusalem Monastery, in Russia; the Whylly Plantation, in the Bahamas; the Benin City Earthworks, in Nigeria; and the Los Angeles home of the influential twentieth-century architect Richard Neutra, the World Monuments Watch list spans the globe and touches upon virtually every historical era. Each year, grant recipients are selected from the current list. Since its inception in 1995, the World Monuments Fund’s Watch program has awarded 275 grants totaling nearly $22 million to aid 144 sites in 65 countries. An estimated $50.9 million more has been leveraged directly to the sites from governments, businesses, individuals, and institutions for an estimated total of $73.9 million, including the grants being announced today.