UNESCO and Arius Technology Forge Landmark Partnership to Digitally Preserve Global Cultural Heritage

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Arius Technology Europa Italia Srl have officially entered into a Cooperation Agreement to preserve, valorize, and expand access to some of the world's most significant cultural and documentary heritage.

The agreement was signed on October 2 by Julien Pellaux, UNESCO Director of Partnerships, and Marco Antonio Soriano, Chief Executive Officer of Arius Technology and the man behind the wheel of this initiative whose leadership power a multi-year effort to create ultra-high-resolution digital “twins” of irreplaceable artifacts and artworks—helping safeguard cultural memory for future generations.

Preserving UNESCO Archives and Art Collection

The first phase of the digitization campaign is scheduled for the latter half of 2026 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, with initial priorities focused on fragile, oversized, and non-standard archival materials where advanced 3D scanning provides clear added value.

Marco Antonio Soriano, CEO of Arius Technology Europa Italia Srl, Andrea Cassoni, Managing Director of ABB Robotics General Industry, and Patrick Bruce-Lockhart, Chief Revenue Officer of Arius Technology.jpeg

Marking a major milestone at UNESCO: (From left) Marco Antonio Soriano, CEO of Arius Technology Europa Italia Srl, Andrea Cassoni, Managing Director of ABB Robotics General Industry, and Patrick Bruce-Lockhart, Chief Revenue Officer of Arius Technology.

Key historical items slated for digital preservation include:

• Selected works from the renowned UNESCO art collection, as well as emblematic architectural spaces within UNESCO Headquarters historical building.

• The original register of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict

• The exclusive UNESCO poster collection, featuring original contributions by acclaimed artists including Sonia Delaunay

• The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation Livre d'Or and several UNESCO Livres d’Or spanning decades, including the most recent guest book signed by Pope Léon XIV

• The UNESCO Human Rights exhibition kit

• The earliest, uniquely formatted issues of the UNESCO Courier

Open Standards for Lasting Access

To ensure long-term accessibility and data sovereignty, resulting high-resolution files will be delivered to UNESCO using open, format-agnostic standards —including the Stanford Polygon format (PLY) —avoiding dependency on proprietary software.

From Digital Twins to Documentary Storytelling

Looking ahead, the agreement also creates a pathway to integrate Arius's scanning capability into UNESCO's “Dive into Heritage” initiative—enabling digitally captured preservation of complex physical assets worldwide, including:

• sculptures

• mosaics

• frescoes

• rock-art heritage sites

To document the impact of this technology-conservation partnership, UNESCO and Arius Technology plan to jointly develop a documentary film highlighting the meticulous digitization work underway—and reaffirming UNESCO's enduring role as a steward of knowledge and heritage.

A Breakthrough Digitization Initiative Built for Heritage at Scale

Through this pro bono collaboration, Arius Technology will deploy its specialized 2D and 3D digitization systems, engineered to capture micro-reliefs, textures, and structural properties that conventional photography or scanning methods cannot reliably see.

To deliver exceptional precision, robotic automation, and secure long-term preservation, Arius will be supported by a consortium of technology partners, including:

• Kamanga.io

• AWA & Piql

• ABB Robotics

From UNESCO HQ to the Heart of Monaco: Meet Arius Pioneers at the Club Vivanova Gala

Members of the Arius executive team are honoured to be attending the Club Vivanova Royal Charity Gala in November. This special event is held under the High Patronage and Presence of H.S.H. Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, who is known for her patronage and love of the arts, and supports two remarkable Monegasque charities: Fight Aids Monaco and Écoute Cancer Réconfort.

Arius is honored to support such causes and attend the gala, which also offers an exclusive opportunity for collectors, cultural leaders, and Club Vivanova members to meet the Arius leadership team. Attendees will gain first-hand insight into Arius' groundbreaking 3D laser technology, explore the future of fine art digital preservation, and discover how sub-micron scanning is transforming both art conservation and luxury asset stewardship.

Learn more about the gala and purchase tickets from Club Vivanova

Arius Technology
Website
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
X

São Tomé and Príncipe: The UNESCO Paradise You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

In July 2026, UNESCO inscribed The Roças of São Tomé and Príncipe: Colonial Agricultural System and Forced Migration on the World Heritage List, the country's first World Heritage property.

The designation covers six historic roças: Monte Café, Água Izé, Diogo Vaz, São João, Sundy and Belo Monte. Developed primarily around coffee and cocoa production, these vast plantation complexes incorporated agricultural land, processing infrastructure, housing and social facilities into remarkably organized settlements.

But their beauty cannot be separated from their history.

UNESCO's designation explicitly recognizes the roças as evidence of a colonial agro-industrial system sustained by forced migration and labor from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. They are monuments not only to architecture or agriculture, but to the human system that once connected these remote islands to the world's appetite for commodities.

For São Tomé and Príncipe, the recognition is significant for another reason.

It places an almost unknown country on the world's cultural map.

The First Biosphere Nation

The World Heritage inscription follows another extraordinary recognition.

In September 2025, UNESCO designated the island of São Tomé as a Biosphere Reserve. Príncipe had already held that status since 2012.

Together, the two designations made São Tomé and Príncipe the first country in the world to have its entire territory covered by UNESCO biosphere reserves.

It is difficult to imagine a better description of the country itself.

São Tomé rises dramatically from the Atlantic, with volcanic peaks, dense forests, coastal ecosystems and agricultural landscapes concentrated into an island of remarkable ecological intensity. UNESCO records around 1,200 plant species on São Tomé alone, including 148 endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. Its forests shelter rare birds, amphibians and reptiles, while four species of marine turtle nest along its shores.

Príncipe is even older.

Formed approximately 31 million years ago, it is the oldest of the oceanic volcanic islands in this part of the Gulf of Guinea. Primary rainforest survives across its mountainous south, while its surrounding islets and waters form part of the wider biosphere landscape.

This is why calling São Tomé and Príncipe a tropical paradise somehow feels insufficient.

Its value is not simply that it is beautiful.

It is that so much remains intact.

Before the World Arrives

There is a familiar trajectory for beautiful islands.

Discovery is followed by investment.

Investment brings infrastructure.

Infrastructure brings accessibility.

Accessibility brings volume.

And somewhere along that progression, the quality that made the place desirable begins to morph.

São Tomé and Príncipe stands at an unusually interesting point in that cycle.

Recognition is increasing, but mass tourism has not yet arrived.

Its cocoa and coffee are finding international audiences. Eco tourism is expanding. Historic roças are being reconsidered as cultural and hospitality assets. Renewable energy, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation are national development priorities, while international organizations are supporting projects ranging from clean energy to youth entrepreneurship and environmental protection.

São Tomé and Príncipe is looking outward: attracting investment, improving infrastructure, developing renewable energy and seeking ways to translate its exceptional natural capital into sustainable prosperity.

In 2025, the country also introduced citizenship by investment program, creating a new route for international families and entrepreneurs to establish a permanent connection with the islands.

The program is interesting not merely because of the passport itself, fast processing time (6-8 weeks) or an attractive investment amount (under 100k), but because of what it represents.

For a country of this scale, carefully directed foreign capital can have a visible effect. Infrastructure, renewable power, education, sustainable tourism and local enterprise are not abstract development categories here. In a nation of fewer than a quarter of a million people, relatively modest projects can change communities.

A Country Beginning to Open

São Tomé and Príncipe will not remain unknown forever.

UNESCO has now recognized both sides of its extraordinary inheritance: in 2025, a natural landscape significant enough for an entire nation to fall within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; in 2026, a difficult but important human landscape whose roças tell a story of colonial agriculture, forced migration and the global cocoa economy.

Together, those recognitions say something important about these islands: a new chapter.

As São Tomé and Príncipe enters this new era, there are now more ways to build a connection with one of the world’s most remarkable emerging destinations.

NTL Trust is a licensed agent for the São Tomé and Príncipe Citizenship by Investment Programme, advising international clients on citizenship, investment and long-term opportunities in the country.

To learn more about São Tomé and Príncipe, its citizenship program and the possibilities emerging across the islands, contact NTL Trust at info@ntltrust.com.