The Government will make a list of assets of the former coloniesThe Minister of Culture has announced that she wants this work to be handled “discreetly and away from the public square.”
In an interview published this Friday in the Expresso newspaper, Pedro Adão e Silva promises that the list will be drawn up by academics and museum directors, in a work of “best inventory????????
However, the official warns: “The effective way to address this issue is with reflection, discretion and a certain reserve. The worst way to deal with this issue is to create a polarized public debate, don’t count on me for that.”
According to Expresso, these are “works of art, cultural property, objects of worship and even remains or bones extracted from their communities of origin and taken to countries such as Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, England or the Netherlands.”
The issue of the return of works to former colonies has gained visibility since, in 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron commissioned a report on the return of works to African countries.
Expresso also recalls that, approximately a year and a half ago, the national commission of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-Portugal) began an investigation to find out the existing heritage in Portuguese museums and that it comes from non-European territories, qualifying it as the first step in an initiative to “promote identification and debate” about these pieces, many of which come from the former Portuguese colonies.
In the interview published today, Pedro Adão e Silva also argues that the increase in the State’s financial effort with culture must be accompanied by a greater presence of the private sector.
“It seems terrible to me that there is dependence on the State, because it reduces the margin of artistic freedom. The taste and choices of those who temporarily hold the position of Minister of Culture must not contaminate artistic productionand to ensure that we have to ensure that the institutions are not an extension of the State”, he says.
Regarding the controversial visit of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to Qatar, Pedro Adão e Silva says that he would not go and that, when he was a sports commentator, he had the opportunity to talk about the World Cup: “I have a deep and structural skepticism towards the governing bodies of world football”.
From the Pyramids of Giza to the Sphinx, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s photo album in Egypt, before his trip to Qatar
Asked if he had read the book by the former governor of the Bank of Portugal, the minister said that he would not have read it and added: “I have not forgotten that his concern for defending the public interest was such that everything he affirms is what happened. he did not mobilize him to do anything at that time, but to make it happen now to sell a book for Christmas ”.
Interview with Carlos Costa: “Resign? That was to give effectiveness to those who called me”
Source: Observadora
