Giorgio and Marilyn Buccellati Receive Prestigious Balzan Prize

Robbert Dijkgraaf, Minister of Education of the

Netherlands, Visits UCLA and the Cotsen Institute (continued)

Jo Anne Van Tilburg is director of the Rock Art Archive at UCLA and an associate researcher at the Cotsen Institute, as well as principal investigator of the Easter Island Statue Project. She noted, “The Van Tilburg family is proud and very pleased to support the Johannes Van Tilburg Lecture in Dutch Studies within the UCLA International Institute. The important watchword inclusion, which is inherent in the approach of UCLA to higher education and a shared goal with the Dutch Ministry of Education, tends to suggest the generosity of sharing something already established. Perhaps at UCLA it could be amended to expansion, which better describes growth in cooperation with the community as a whole and within the long-established UCLA tradition of diversity.”

Willeke Wendrich, director of the Cotsen Institute, welcomed the visitors via Zoom from Budapest (Hungary), where she was attending a conference. Herself an alumnus of Leiden University in the Netherlands, Wendrich noted, “The push by UCLA for equity and diversity is extremely important, and I am delighted that we have been able to hire a diverse faculty. It is also important to put in the minds of all young students that UCLA is something they can aim for. The combination of having a role model and being told ‘this is for you’ is very powerful.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Dijkgraaf reported, “This isn’t just the end of the trip; this is a grand finale. UCLA made sure we finished our visit to the United States on a very high note.” ■

On February 2, 2022, the International Balzan Prize Foundation announced that Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati had been awarded the 2021 Balzan Prize for Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. This prestigious prize is awarded annually to a maximum of four recipients and includes a cash component for each recipient of approximately $800,000, half of which must be invested in research by young researchers. Previous winners have included several Nobel Prize laureates. The aim of the prize “is to foster culture, the sciences, and the most meritorious initiatives in the cause of humanity, peace and fraternity among peoples throughout the world.”

Giorgio Buccellati is a professor emeritus of the Department of History and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and the founding director of the Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, now the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. He is also director of the Mesopotamian Laboratory. Marilyn KellyBuccellati is a professor emerita of archaeology and art history at California State University–Los Angeles. Both are researchers affiliated with the Cotsen Institute.

Giorgio and Marilyn received the award “for their achievements in the study of Hurrian culture and for highlighting its importance as the foundation of a great urban civilization, among the most flourishing in the ancient Near East in the third millennium BCE; for promoting a digital approach to the study of archaeology; and for enhancing theoretical reflection on the nature of this discipline,” according to the announcement by the Balzan Prize Foundation.

The International Balzan Foundation was created in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1956 by Lina Balzan, daughter of Eugenio Francesco Balzan. Upon his death she decided to use his wealth to honor his memory. Eugenio Balzan was born on April 20, 1874, in Badia Polesine, near Rovigo in northern Italy, into a family of landowners. He spent almost his entire working life at Corriere della Sera, the leading newspaper in Milan. After joining the paper in 1897, he worked his way up from editorial assistant to news editor and special correspondent. In 1903 editor Luigi Albertini made him managing director of the paper’s publishing house, of which he became a partner and a shareholder. In 1933 he left Italy for Switzerland,

where he had successfully invested his fortune. He continued his significant charitable activities until his death in Lugano in 1953.

Nominating letters on behalf of the Buccellatis came from an array of distinguished international scholars who have worked with them over the years. The letters praised their efforts in the areas of archaeological theory, art history, conservation, digital analysis, fieldwork, institutional commitment, and public archaeology. The letters were signed by Max Hollein, director, and Daniel Weiss, president and CEO, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Tim Whalen, director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles; Sarah Kansa, executive director, and Eric Kansa, program director, of Open Context in Berkeley; Wang Wei, president of the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Nazeer Awad, director general of the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus (Syria); Christian Greco, director of Museo Egizio in Turin (Italy); Stefano Valentini, director of the Center for Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies in Florence (Italy); and Willeke Wendrich, director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

In his letter from the Getty Conservation Institute, Whalen writes that the work of the Buccellatis “reflects an extraordinary blend of scholarly erudition and pragmatic commonsense. They see near and far. Practicing archaeologists who have embraced both site and artifact conservation, innovators and experimentalists, brilliant networkers across multiple disciplines with the ability to engage help effortlessly from others with different expertise—these are the attributes of Giorgio and Marilyn. Their contribution to the integration of preservation, archaeology, and community comprises a milestone. Their record of accomplishment is stellar. We stand in admiration of their inventive ways of harnessing the benefits of archaeology for a larger purpose and in ways they never would have imagined— as a bulwark against the ravages of war.”

Wendrich congratulated the Buccellatis, whom she has known as colleagues for more than 20 years, on their well-deserved award, which she enthusiastically supported. In her letter of nomination, she extolled both professors as “great educators. They have trained students from UCLA, several Italian universities, the University of Damascus, and schoolchildren from the nearby city of Qamishli. They are fundamentally concerned with the safety and well-being of their Syrian counterparts and support a large community by helping to develop economic opportunities. Central to their work are the deep historical roots of the region; at the forefront of their minds are the living communities.” ■

Marilyn and Giorgio Buccellati in Tell Mozan, Syria.