Culture Minister Dalila Rodrigues will be heard in parliament about the possible return of works of art to the former Portuguese colonies after Cega’s request was approved this Wednesday.
According to an official source of the parliamentary committee on culture, the request of the Minister of Culture to hold a hearing “on the policy of returning cultural heritage to the former overseas provinces” was approved by votes for the PS and Chegu and votes against the PSD and Livre.
Last week, Chega leader Andre Ventura based the request for a hearing on statements from Delilah Rodriguez in which she defended the return of art to former colonies before she became culture minister.
In an interview with Observador in November, Dalila Rodrigues, who at the time was director of the Jerónimos Monastery and Belém Tower, said that “it is fundamentally important to accept the imperative of restitution of misappropriated goods, regardless of the conditions of their receipt.” given that he cannot “continue to exercise protective power over places where items have been obtained from improper sources.”
Chega wants Dalila Rodriguez to “explain her position on the issue of the return of works of art” to former colonies, and the party leader said he will also ask the Ministry of Culture for “real and concrete data on whether there have been any returns or delivery of any work of art or museum item.”
Ventura argued that if the artworks were returned to the former colonies, it would be “opening Pandora’s box” and Portugal would also have to “recover the costs from the Spanish, French and others.”
Recently, there has been increased debate and pressure on European and American museums and institutions to reclaim heritage taken from several countries under the rule of former colonial powers, such as Britain, France, Germany and Belgium.
In Portugal, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said in late April that the country must lead the process of accepting and addressing the consequences of colonialism, and offered debt forgiveness, cooperation and financing as examples.
On the 27th, on the sidelines of the opening of the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom in Peniche, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that throughout his presidency he had argued that Portugal should “lead the process” in dialogue with these countries.
“We can’t put this under the rug or in a drawer. We have a responsibility to pilot, to lead this process, because if we do not lead it by taking responsibility, what happened to the countries that, as colonial powers, will happen after X years of losing the ability to dialogue and mutual understanding with the former colonies “, he warned.
Answering questions from journalists, the President of the Republic said that the current government should continue the process of surveying the heritage sites of the former colonies in Portugal, initiated by the previous government, with a view to later returning them.
Three days earlier, at a dinner with foreign correspondents in Portugal, the head of state had already acknowledged Portugal’s responsibility for crimes committed during the colonial era, offering reparations for past mistakes.
Following Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s statements, the government said in a statement that “there was and is not in doubt any process or program of concrete action with the aim” of reparations for the Portuguese colonial past, and said it would follow the “same line” of previous managers.
Regarding the return of heritage originating from former colonies, in November 2022, in an interview with the weekly Expresso, then Minister of Culture Pedro Adán e Silva stated that “the effective way to deal with this issue is reflection, prudence and some reservations,” before emphasizing: “ The worst way to solve this problem is to create a polarized public debate.”
There have been several cases in recent years where Portuguese heritage authorities have guaranteed that there will be no requests for returns from former colonies.
In 2019, when the debate on this issue was already underway, especially at the European level, the director of the National Museum of Ethnology, Paulo Costa, told Lusa that to date he had not received a single request for a refund. works from 80 countries represented there.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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