Since the outbreak of the so-called 'Arab Spring' on February 17, 2011, Libya (the modern state in which the ancient region of Cyrenaica is located) has fallen into a continuous condition of clashes and civil wars that it has had, among its consequences, including the deterioration, destruction and looting of a large part of the cultural and historical-archaeological heritage present in the museums and archaeological areas of the region. The situation subsequently worsened with the arrival of ISIS on the war scene in 2014.

Among the most tragic events from this point of view we cannot fail to mention the theft of the so-called 'Treasure of Benghazi', a priceless collection of over 8000 pieces including coins, statues and jewels, stolen from the vault of the Commercial Bank of Benghazi in 2011; but it is only one of the numerous crimes that the Libyan cultural heritage has had to suffer. Statues, mosaics, funerary furnishings, pottery, architectural elements, sarcophagi and, of course, Libyan coins have therefore begun to appear on the antiques market in an ever increasing manner. more consistent right from 2011. The risk of dispersion of these materials became immediately evident, so much so that UNESCO and ICOM immediately launched an appeal to auction houses and sellers to pay particular attention and report any possible finds of Libyan origin .

The CyReNe-Project (Cyrenaican Research Numismatic e-Project) is a project of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua which, through the creation and management of a WebApp for the collection and cataloging of coins from the ancient region of Cyrenaica, with the registration of the bibliographic information relating to them and the possible reconstruction of their pedigree, a dual purpose is proposed:

• Safeguard: we want to verify and preserve, at least virtually, the information on the Cyrenaican specimens that appeared in auctions and on-line sales sites;
• Study: by also inserting the data of the coins present in public and private collections, both national and international, we want to make available to the scientific community, in a structured and systematic form, a mass of otherwise disordered data.

The CyReNe-Project Web-App, which can be consulted online directly from the website of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padua, aims to provide as complete information as possible on the ancient coins of Cyrenaica, favoring their study and recognition, and proposing itself as a tool for the cataloging of these issues and for research in this sector. Both in Italian and in English, it can be used on any type of device, fixed or mobile, and allows an agile and immediate management of the data collected, a detailed overview of the coins present, a search mask to be able to easily trace issues and specimens and, thanks to the numerous images and photographs, it allows you to make comparisons with pieces from collections from all over the world and from national and international sales. The application ensures access in 'Guest' mode for data consultation even without the need for registration, and two different controlled access modes that allow the entry and management of information according to different levels of privileges.