Alvise Zorzi had been the director of the Venice International Film Festival of the Biennale di Venezia and the director of cultural programmes for the Italian broadcasting company, RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana). Alvise Zorzi authored a number of books on the history and civilization of Venice - including biographies of Carlo Goldoni, Marco Polo, Titian and other prominent denizens of the city of bridges.

UNESCO is privileged to have benefitted since the International Campaign for the Safeguarding of Venice from the co-operation of Alvise Zorzi, as a great specialist in Venetian history. Following the severe floods of 1966, in response to the appeal launched by the then Director-General of UNESCO, René Maheu, private organizations were established in a number of countries to collect and channel contributions to restore and preserve Venice. In fifty years of activity, within the UNESCO-Private Committees Programme for the Safeguarding of Venice, over 700 restoration projects of buildings and artifacts, publicly-owned, belonging to the historical and artistic heritage of Venice have been funded.

UNESCO Regional Bureau owes Alvise Zorzi its deepest gratitude for the constant investment, the passion and the countless sensitivity that he showed towards the safeguarding of Venice - invaluable resources to raise public awareness worldwide, particularly within the International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice, of which he was a devoted president until 2010.

The works of Alvise Zorzi will remain in lasting memory of a passionate and sophisticated life entirely dedicated to the study and transmitted to the younger generation with the strength of an identity, that of his city Venice he cherished most. Forged by an adverse nature, Venice is a unique city in the world, of outstanding universal value, which together with its lagoon was inscribed in 1987on the World Heritage List.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Mimì Prinetti Castelletti Zorzi, and his children.