Art 'Blue Helmets' rescue Italy's treasures from the rubble

After a devastating series of earthquakes in 2016, Italy's art police - the "Blue Helmets" - are collecting and cataloging buried ecclesiastical artifacts such as battered crucifixes, cracked frescoes or broken columns from local churches, and handing them to a team of restorers, archaeologists and historians.

A team of some 40 people made up of art police, firefighters, Culture Ministry officials, civil protection officers and volunteers remove items from a church in Visso, which dates back to the Middle Ages. Visso is located in the Italian region of Marche, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Ancona.

Visso has become a ghost town since locals abandoned their damaged homes after a series of earthquakes. A deadly tremor in August 2016 killed 300 people, and twin quakes caused further damage to buildings in October. "San Francesco di Visso was the oldest church in a region with invaluable treasures and no fewer than 483 churches," says Pierluigi Morricone from the Culture Ministry's crisis unit.

Italy's Carabinieri Art Squad, an expert force founded in 1969 that combats crimes involving art and antiquities and helps train art police in other countries, forms the backbone of the "Blue Helmets." "The priority is to save artworks, paintings, frescoes, relics, sculptures, statues, liturgical objects, candlesticks, crosses, thuribles," says Morricone.

Visso was founded in 907 AD and survived a sacking by Goths and looting during the Byzantine empire. Today the only people in sight are the "Blue Helmets." A museum director explains: "Six percent of the world's art heritage is in this region. Visso is a city of art; this is a tragedy. We have to save this territory, we cannot give up."

Italy, with its rich history of art going back to at least Etruscan times, has so many treasures that the state has difficulty taking care of them. The UN-backed task force is helping the country in this difficult mission.

A deal between Italy and UNESCO will see similar teams sent worldwide to salvage heritage sites devastated by conflict or natural disasters, with their first job expected to be in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, once it is safe for them to enter.