Brazil launches list to protect country’s historical and cultural heritage
The International Council of Museums published this Tuesday (14th) a very important list to protect the historical and cultural heritage of Brazil.
There are assets that represent the diversity of our people, reveal our roots, tell our story. Ancient cultural assets some very old are of inestimable value. But everything has a price in the criminal world, and that’s where a lot of those goods end up. It’s not today.
Crime benefits from a lack of information. Those who buy this type of goods sometimes do not even know that the sale is prohibited. Police officers and inspectors can intercept trades in these pieces, but to do so they need to know them in order to know what they are.
1 of 3 Introduction of the Red List in the Portuguese Language Museum — Photo: JN Introduction of the Red List in the Portuguese Language Museum — Photo: JN
This Tuesday afternoon, the “Red List” was presented at the Portuguese Language Museum in São Paulo. It was created by Icom, the International Council of Museums.
“It is not a list of stolen goods, but an illustrated list of categories of cultural property protected by law and at high risk,” explains Icom Brasil President Renata Motta.
Minister of Culture Margareth Menezes was involved in the opening.
2 of 3 Margareth Menezes presenting the Red List — Photo: JN Margareth Menezes presenting the Red List — Photo: JN
Anauene Dias, an artwork expert and list coordinator, explains that ethnographic goods, like indigenous artifacts, cannot be sold if they are made from parts of wild or endangered animals. Paleontological objects such as fossils and archaeological objects such as a Marajoara burial urn are all protected.
“In sacred art we also have a protection, a specific law, and that protects goods made up to the end of the 19th century, made up to 1889. After that date only if they are registered by IPHAN. And we can quote religious, Catholic and even African objects, which is new to our list,” explains Anauene.
3 of 3 Urn is on the Red List — Photo: JN Urn is on the Red List — Photo: JN
Many books and documents are also protected by law.
“Books and documents created up to the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century. We have a big innovation in the list, in the Red List, which is appearing for the first time, and that is citing comics, which is the first Edition of Tico Tico and also the first edition of our great author Machado de Assis, ‘Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas’,” says Anauene.
“The Araripe is famous worldwide for the quantity and quality of its fossils. There were special conditions here, petrification was very favourable. This material comes from Brazil, it should return to Brazil, it is a legacy of the Brazilian people,” defends Professor Alysson Pinheiro of the Regional University of Cariri.