Restoration of Pompeii

   The famous monument of the Ancient Rome, Pompeii, is undergoing restoration with the help of tourists. Over the years, travelers have been taking pieces of ruins as souvenirs, but nowadays they are bringing back those fragments of murals, walls, and monuments. For example, quite recently they’ve returned a piece of mural that was taken in 1980. It helped to restore the house in a small town of Casa del Frutteto.  
   The director of the museum “Pompeii” Massimo Osanna noted that the majority of fragments he has received lately were accompanied by apologetic letters. We are pleased with the fact that people began to admit that taking artefacts from their homeland was a wrong thing to do. 
In the years between 1999 and 2003, when there was no good security at the site of Pompeii, people had an easy access to various notable fragments. Tourists were able to walk into houses without any restrictions and take whatever they wanted. Hence, in 2008 the government declared a state of emergency. 
   There are 13 endangered sites today. In the recent years some historical buildings of Pompeii started to collapse. 
In 2013 UNESCO included the ancient Pompeii in the list of the World Heritage as an endangered monument.
Influx of tourists also negatively affects the condition of the ancient town.  
It’s worth mentioning that Pompeii is one of the largest monuments of world architectural heritage. As a result of the awakening of Volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD such towns as Herculaneum, Oplontia, Stabia and Pompeii were buried under the layers of ashes.