5. "This monument belongs to the city of Leiden, and its future will be decided by Leiden. Americans have nothing to say about it."

ANSWER: The historic heritage is recognized by governments around the world as belonging to the people of the world, regardless of where they live. For that reason The Netherlands supports UNESCO efforts to preserve monuments in many other countries. The legal ownership of a monument of international cultural significance is both a privilege and a responsibility. The town of Leiden therefore has a moral obligation, of a sort recognized in treaties and conventions that The Netherlands has signed, to preserve the Vrouwekerk. Similarly, Fortis Bank, which has allowed registered monuments it owns in the Aalmarkt area to fall into serious disrepair, has a responsibility to restore and preserve them, especially because it is the deterioration of those monuments that is bringing others into danger, including the St. Catharine's Hospital associated with Pilgrim Myles Standish. The owner of a monument that symbolizes events of importance in the international history of civilization is a steward of tangible memorials of values, that cannot be allowed to be destroyed for short- term profit or shortsighted esthetic whim (such as demolition of the Vrouwekerk to create a more beautiful empty space).