World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

Sometimes even a mere 51 seconds can be a genuine treasure – especially when we're talking about a unique recording from a meeting of central banks. See for yourself in the next instalment of the Treasures from the CNB Archive series.

Long gone are the days when archives only held written documents. Nowadays, alongside photographs, they also contain audio and film recordings. It is precisely these that the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage seeks to highlight. This commemorative day was proclaimed by UNESCO more than twenty years ago and takes place every 27 October.

The archival collections of the Czech National Bank Archive contain a short film documenting a special event in 1936, when Prague hosted a meeting of the governors of the central banks of the "Little Entente" countries – Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania. The aim was to deepen their cooperation in the financial and monetary fields, primarily due to the growing threat posed by Nazi Germany. On the one hand, Germany was taking an increasingly hard line towards Czechoslovakia, while on the other it was seeking to bind the two Balkan states to itself economically. Although only 51 seconds long, the film captures the ceremonial conclusion of the three-day event, when, after two days of talks, a joint resolution on strengthening mutual payment relations was signed on 28 November 1936.