Thanks to Victoria Ocampo (1890-1979), one of the most important Argentine cultural figures of the 20th century, Villa Ocampo (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was the privileged witness of the French-Argentine cultural relations in the early 1920s. Several years before her passing, Victoria Ocampo, on her friend André Malraux’s advice, donated her properties to UNESCO to promote study, experimentation and development of activities embracing cultural, literature, art and social communication, in a lively and creative spirit.
In 2000, in the framework of the France-UNESCO Cooperation Agreement, a French expertise mission assisted the Argentine officials to develop a master plan that took into account the legacy and presentation of the buildings and gardens from a cultural perspective, in connection with the past.
The restoration project of Villa Ocampo was launched in 2003 as a result of the agreement signed with UNESCO, the Argentine Government, Sur Foundation, the Villa Ocampo Association and Victoria Ocampo Foundation at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, in 2000.
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