Expecting the 80th anniversary of signing the international "Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments" which went down in history as the Roerich Pact and would be commemorated in 2015, The ICR and the Committee for the Preservation of the Roerichs Heritage jointly implement the international exhibition project dedicated to this event.

The Latin American step of this project has been launched this May in Argentine, where the exhibition «The Roerich Pact. History and Modernity» acquired the status of "having national interest" and "having an educational interest" on the resolution of country's authorities. After Argentine the tour will continue in Uruguay, in the capital of which (Montevideo) in 1933 there was held the 7th Conference of Pan American Union, whereon an appeal to the Member States asking to sign the Roerich Pact was unanimously accepted.

On the territory of Uruguay the exhibition will took place in four cities. From 3 June till 9 June - in Paysandu; from 11 June till 26 June - in Cologne (Bastion del Carmen); from 27 June till 9 July - in Carmelo and from 16 July till 30 August - in Montevideo (Migration Museum).

The press-conference and grand opening of the exhibition «The Roerich Pact. History and Modernity» will occur in the building of the Migration Museum on 16 July, Montevideo.

The organizers of the exhibition are the International Centre of the Roerichs in association with the Committee for the Preservation of the Roerichs Heritage with the support of UNESCO and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

Co-organizer of the exhibition is the Uruguayan non-governmental organization «Unidem Uruguay». Assistance in realization of the exhibition project is rendered by The Russian Embassy in Uruguay, Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Buenos Aires, the heads of departments in Paysandu and Colony, Migration Museum in Montevideo.

Nicholas Roerich, the outstanding Russian artist, scientist, thinker, public figure, peacemaker greatly contributed to the development of the world culture. One of his main achievements is the creation of the "Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments", which laid the foundation of the system of International Humanitarian Law applied to Cultural Heritage. Signing of the Roerich Pact became one of the most important events of the XXth century in International Protection of Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Roerich Pact was signed in Washington by the representatives of 21 states of Pan American Union including the USA on 15 April, 1935.

During the signing of the Pact in Oval office of the White House the USA President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared: «When proposing the signing of this Pact to all nations we are straining after the worldwide operation of the prime principle for preservation of modern civilization. This agreement is of spiritual significance than it is expressed in the text».

The exposition of the exhibition «The Roerich Pact. History and Modernity» includes numerous materials about the origin of the Roerich Pact, reproductions on canvas paintings of the Master, unique photos, the richest document material, illustrating the implementation of the initiative of the great Russian humanist Nicholas Roerich who managed to unite the world community of those times and found the international movement for the sake of Culture Preservation for future generations.

The Roerich Pact paved the way and basic framework for the development of principal instruments of UNESCO in international humanitarian law, focused on protection of the cultural heritage of humanity both in peacetime and situation of the armed conflict. His principles became the frame of the Hague Convention dated 1954 of Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Nicholas Roerich believed that further evolution of humanity is impossible without protection and development of culture and human reference to its origins. He was confident that only by expanding the culture space we would be able to reduce chances of armed conflicts. He wrote: "Where there is culture, there is peace".