In Vienna (Austria), in the Russian Centre of Science and Culture, on 15 – 16 September, 2016, there was held the international scientific and public conference "the Relevance of Scientific, Artistic and Philosophical Heritage of the Roerich Family in the Modern World", dedicated to the memory of Lyudmila V. Shaposhnikova, the first Vice-President of the International Centre of the Roerichs, academician, honoured art worker of the Russian Federation, the Director General and founder of the Public Museum by name of N.K. Roerich.

The conference participants from several countries of Europe and Russia, discussed international cooperation in the protection of the world cultural heritage; the cooperation being based on the ideas of N.K.Roerich’s Pact and Banner of Peace, as well as on his "Peace through Culture" idea to meet modern challenges.

During the two-day European conference organised by the Austrian Roerich Society under the auspices of the International Centre of the Roerichs ( Moscow) in the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Vienna, the representative of the Armed forces of Austria officially handed over to the Russian representatives the guidelines of the Austrian military in the treatment of monuments of history and culture.

"One of the main ideas of our conference is the opportunity for rapprochement between the two major international public associations – Association Committees of the Blue Shield and the Roerich movement", the Director of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Vienna Yury Zaitsev said at the opening of the conference. According to him, the value of historical and cultural heritage does not subject to "any political storms" and the implementation of the conference with the participation of representatives of the Roerich organizations from 12 countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Germany and others in the Russian Cultural Centre, Vienna, was the confirmation of the noble ideas of the founders of the movement for the preservation of cultural heritage.

The two-day conference of the followers of the Roerichs, which gathered a few dozen participants from different regions of Russia, several countries in Europe and Asia, and Colombia, was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of orientalist and academician Lyudmila Shaposhnikova, who at the turn of the 1980-ies and 90-ies brought to Moscow from India the archives and heritage of the Roerich family and who headed established in Moscow Public Museum named after N.K.Roerich.

The topics of the reports covered issues related to the international exhibition project "the Roerich Pact. History and Modernity" organized and conducted by the International Centre of the Roerichs, the International Committee for the Preservation of the Roerich Heritage, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Representatives of the various countries of the European Union and Russia spoke about the experience of the exhibition project "the Roerich Pact. History and Modernity", the significance of the main provisions of the Roerich Pact and the important role of the International Centre of the Roerichs in the promotion of these ideas in various countries around the world. One of the reports at the conference was devoted to destruction by the Taliban of the ancient Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan. The round table was devoted to participation of public organizations in improvement of intercultural dialogue and the protection of monuments of history and culture on the national and international levels.

The coordinator of the conference, the President of the Austrian Roerich Society, member of the Board of the Austrian National Committee of the Blue Shield Leylya Strobl reported that on the results of the conference it is planned to organize Austrian-Russian meeting of experts on the protection of cultural monuments in times of war and peace.