PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Susan Blakney, a paintings conservator from New York, scrambled up a mound of rubble left by the collapse of the Episcopal Holy Trinity Cathedral here, searching for small shards of the cathedral’s murals.

The cathedral is a cherished part of this country’s cultural heritage, and most of its murals were destroyed in the earthquake that struck here in January. Two from the north transept, though, one depicting the Last Supper and the other the baptism of Christ, remain largely intact.

“It looks like there are some chunks underneath here,” Ms. Blakney, 62, yelled to colleagues working with her earlier this month in an effort to save thousands of works of art damaged in the quake.

The rescue is being organized by the Smithsonian Institution, which is to open a center here in June where American conservators will work with Haitian staff members to repair torn paintings, shattered sculptures and other works pulled from the rubble of museums and churches.

Haitian artists and cultural professionals have been conducting informal salvage operations for the past four months. But the Americans are bringing conservation expertise ? there are few if any professionally trained art conservators in Haiti ? and special equipment .

The initiative, in its swiftness, its close collaboration with a foreign government and its combination of private and government financing, represents a new model of American cultural diplomacy, one that organizers believe stands in stark contrast to the apathy Americans were accused of exhibiting during the looting of Iraqi artistic treasures in 2003.

“Mistakes have been made in the past, in times of great tragedy or upheaval, by not protecting and prioritizing a country’s cultural heritage,” said Rachel Goslins, the executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which has been involved in finding money for the project. “I think this is a huge opportunity for us to say, ‘We get it.’ ”

Smithsonian officials say the project will cost $2 million to $3 million over the next year and a half, after which the center is to be turned over to the Haitian government.

Ms. Blakney traveled here with two other conservators, a museum curator, and a group of engineers and planning experts from the Smithsonian. Their task was to assess what kinds of damage the art had sustained . T hey will then decide what equipment they, or whoever the Smithsonian ends up sending to work at the center, will need.

The rescue operation came together largely because of the efforts of Corine Wegener, a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a retired Army major who served in Iraq shortly after the looting of the Iraqi National Museum, and Richard Kurin, the under secretary for history, art and culture at the Smithsonian.

Ms. Wegener, who also made the trip this month, said she had been horrified by what had happened at the Iraqi National Museum, where she worked as a liaison between staff members and American officials during her deployment.

“It was so disturbing for me as a museum professional to see the staff so completely in shock,” she said. “How would I feel if I came to work one day and found 15,000 objects had been looted?” She was determined not to see history repeat itself in Haiti, she said .

Some of the Haitian officials and cultural professionals with whom the group met were hearing about the planned conservation center for the first time, and they responded with relief .

The American aid is “fundamental for us,” said Patrick Vilaire, a sculptor who took the lead in saving the collections of several damaged libraries after the earthquake.

A few, however, expressed frustration that aid had not come sooner and a worry that foreign experts were better at conducting visits and assessments than providing real, practical help.

A meeting with Daniel Elie, the head of the government agency in charge of preserving Haiti’s national heritage, turned momentarily tense when his colleague and translator, Monique Rocourt, said she was fed up with hosting visiting advisers who came and did nothing.

“If I bring another team of experts to Jacmel,” she said, referring to a city seriously damaged in the quake, “we will look in front of the population like we’re just bringing foreigners to look at disasters. It’s cynical, but that’s what people will think.”


By KATE TAYLOR