Colosseum and Palazzo Barberini to host Rome G20 summit.

The first G20 Culture Ministers’ Meeting is being held in Rome on 29 and 30 July, in a major two-day event held under the Italian G20 presidency.

The meeting began on Thursday evening in the arena of the Colosseum, attended by the culture ministers of 20 of the world's largest economies together with 40 high-level cultural delegations.

Italian premier Mario Draghi was in attendance along with culture minister Dario Franceschini and the director general of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.

The meetings include delegations from UNESCO, OECD, the Council of Europe, the Union for the Mediterranean, ICCROM, ICOM and ICOMOS, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO).

Later in the evening the Quirinal Palace hosted a concert by the Luigi Cherubini youth orchestra - conducted by maestro Riccardo Muti who celebrated his 80th birthday this week - broadcast live on Italian television.

Palazzo Barberini

On Friday 30 July a day-long programme of meetings will be held at Palazzo Barberini - home of Italy's collection of ancient art - which will be closed to the public on 30 July.

There will be traffic and parking restrictions in the areas around the Quirinale and Palazzo Barberini on both days, with similar measures expected in the area around Galleria Borghese on Friday.

Key topics

The G20 Italia website outlines the five key topics up for discussion in Rome as:

• The protection and promotion of culture and creative sectors as engines for sustainable and balanced growth
• Protecting cultural heritage against risks, including natural disasters, environmental degradation and climate change, deliberate destruction and looting, illicit trafficking in cultural property
• Promoting digital and technological transformation in the cultural and creative sectors
• Building capacity through training to address the complexity of the contemporary world and cultural sector challenges
• Tackling climate change through culture

Joint declaration

Minister Franceschini said the goal of the G20 meeting is to reach the signing of a joint declaration by the G20 ministers and various organisations "which includes a series of commitments on many issues" as well as "the stabilisation of the G20 Culture as one of the preparatory meetings for the summit of heads of states and government."

Italy, which assumed the G20 2021 Presidency last December, will host the G20 leaders’ summit in Rome on 30-31 October.

Ieri è partito al #Colosseo il primo #G20Culture della storia, voluto dalla Presidenza italiana. pic.twitter.com/i5OziOsAIw

— Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) July 30, 2021