Valencia Government Allocates Funds to Restore Photos Damaged in Flood

The Valencia Provincial Council will next week approve a 60,000-euro grant to hire staff for the laboratories integrated into the 'Save the Photos' project to restore photographs damaged by last year's flood. The president of the Provincial Council, Vicent Mompó, visited the Algemesí laboratory, which is part of the project. There, he first-hand learned about the digitization process and the storage area with the freezers, where the photographic funds awaiting intervention are temporarily kept, pending an expansion of the technical team. The figures demonstrate the magnitude of this laboratory's work: 200,000 photos from 250 families from municipalities such as l'Alcúdia, Guadassuar, Riola, Cullera, Algemesí, and Albalat, with approximately 30% already restored. He also called for volunteer work and funding: 'There is a year of work left to have all the photographs restored.' Finally, the mayor of Algemesí, José Javier Sanchis, emphasized that for the families, the recovery of the photographs means 'a contribution to the psychological recovery and mental health of many families, who in many cases lost the only memory they had of their relatives.' The 'Save the Photos' project consists of five laboratories: the Natural History Museum of the University of Valencia, the Horta Sud Comarcal Museum in Torrent, the Municipal Museum Casa Alamazón in Utiel, Alaquàs Castle, and the ESART-Contemporary Art Center of Algemesí. Faced with this workload, the restoration will extend into all of 2026, as postcards, letters, personal documents, and even works of art are also being restored. A work in which, according to the Vice-Rector for Culture and Society of the UV, Ester Alba, L'ETNO has participated from the beginning: 'It has been very important because people trust their local cultural institutions; this way of working with the museums that the Provincial Council facilitates is essential; furthermore, L'ETNO is helping us with the digitization and restoration processes of the works of art.' For his part, the director of the laboratory and the ESART Art Center, Alejandro Villar, detailed that they have received 'many boxes from different towns in the Ribera, we have made a whole network of collaboration, healing, and affection between laboratories, associations, and international professionals to safeguard the memory of these families and the history of the Ribera since the late 19th century.' Additionally, as the Provincial Council recalls in a press release, the institution signed a framework agreement with the UV at the beginning of the year to collaborate on this task of preserving individual and collective memory. 'From the Provincial Council, we want to help cover the costs involved because what is restored here, in addition to the families' memories, is also our heritage, and it is important to recover it for this specific moment and for the future,' Mompó stated, applauding the work done: 'It's a fantastic project, this laboratory is professional and voluntary, very much in line with what the dana brought us, they are doing an invaluable job.' In total, the project covers 2.4 million photos from 1,500 families. Moreover, he explained, 'it is further proof of all that remains to be done after the dana.'