In this talk, Prof. Weerasinghe will present the case of the restoration of bomb-damaged murals of the Sacred Tooth Relic temple in Kandy and the heritage management issues at the 5th-century rock fortress of Sigiriya, both World Heritage Sites. He will be focusing on the challenges that the concept of "authenticity" faces, which is central to modern heritage management thinking as sanctioned by the 1972 World Heritage Convention and its Operational Guidelines.
Jagath Weerasinghe is an artist, an archaeologist, and a conservator. He is the former Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology (PGIAR, University of Kelaniya) and is currently the Director of Archaeology for the World Heritage Sites of Sigiriya and Dambulla under the Central Cultural Fund in Sri Lanka. He trained in conservation at ICCROM and at the Getty Conservation Institute. He is the founding chair of the Theertha International Artists Collective.