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- You may be aware of it, we are entering Algeria’s year,

- a country with which France has always had a special relationship.

- This year will thus be the occasion to discover its cultural heritage

- and to have us speak about a special operation

- that is now taking place in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône.

- A French-Algerian team is now restoring nine masterpieces from the Algerian heritage.

- Sherif and Patrick work at it hand in hand.

- A France 3 Marseille reporting.

- French, Algerians, they participate to a sort of rebirth.

- Those mosaics are gems of the Roman Empire.

- Some almost disappeared.

- Today, in the workshop of the Ancient Arles Museum, they find their original shine back.

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- Sherif Hamza, Algerian archeology studentThose boards of mosaic are extremely minute,

- they are opus vermiculatum,

- with accurate drawings,

- more over they are, in a way, unique pavements in the world,

- so that’s why we must work taking the needed precautions.

- Discovered in 1905 in the Aurès,

- the mosaic of the Néréides is one of the finest pieces of Ancient art.

- It had to be transported as a puzzle.

- Damaged, badly restored, the transported works are here a testimony of the special riches of Ancient Algeria, not well known.

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- There are many mosaics of that type?

- No, that’s not frequent.

- What we call opus vermiculatum in the Roman world can be found

- but that’s very rare, still.

- Specialized workshops very certainly made those mosaics.

- If the technique of restoration is universal, teams bring different elements.

- The French bring the tools, the Algerians bring a perfect knowledge of their lands.

- They also bring their professional knowledge to us

- and their love for those objects.

- So it’s perfectly reasonable to say that we will contribute to the settling of a heritage that is common to us,

- that has been common to us for a very long time.

- The nine mosaics will be displayed to the public in April in Arles, then in Paris.

- So there are 3 months and a half of work left, a very short time limit for such a task.