This article discusses museum development and cultural policy in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 10 years. It notes the diversity of cultures and political/economic systems in the region and how museums are being called on to play a major role in developing awareness of cultural heritage. A 1972 conference marked a turning point, promoting an "integral museum" approach focused on interdisciplinarity and relating heritage to society's present needs. Since then, museums have increasingly taken on the challenge of making heritage relevant to contemporary development. The article seeks perspectives from regional experts on progress, challenges, and cultural policy priorities regarding museums.

1. Museum
Vol XXXIV, n° 2, 1982
Museums, heritage and
cultural policies in Latin
America and the Caribbean

2. Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 , 1982
Museidni, successor to Mauseìoii, is published
by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris.
An international forum (quarterly) of
information and reflection on museums of all
kinds.
Authors are responsible for the choice and the
presentation of the facts contained in their articles
and for the opinions expressed therein, which are
not necessarily those of Unesco or the Editorial
Board of Nueum. Titles, introductory texts and
captions may be written by the Editor.
DIRECTOR
Percy Stulz
EDITORIAL BOARD
Chairman: Syed A. Naqvi
Editor: Yudhishthir Raj Isar
Editorial Assistant : Christine Wilkinson
ADVISORY BOARD
Om Prakash Agrawal, India
Fernanda de Camargo e Almeida-Moro,
Brazil
Chira Chongkol, Thailand
Joseph-Marie Essomba, President of
OMMSA
Gad de Guichen, Scientific Training
Assistant, ICCROM
Jan Jelinek, Czechoslovakia
Grace L. McCann Morley, Adviser, ICOM
Regional Agency in Asia
Luis Monreal, Secretary-General of ICOM, Correspondence concerning editorid inatten
ex-oficia should be addressed to the Editor (Division
Paul Perror, United States of America of Cultural Heritage, Unesco, 7 place de
Georges Henri Rivière, Permanent Adviser Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France) who is
of ICOM always pleased to consider manuscripts for
Vitali Souslov, Union of Soviet Socialist publication but cannot accept liability for
Republics their custody or return. Authors are advised
to write to the Editor first.
Cover photo: Restoration of polychrome Pziblished texts inay be fieely rgrodaced aiid
wood sculpture at the restoration c h t r e in trmslated (excqt illustrations and when
Antigua Guatemala. ~~~odztctioti or trattslatioz rights a4e ruewed),
[P/joto: Alejandro Rojas Garcia.] provided that m~itiotiis made of the author
and source. Extracts may be quoted i f due
acknoudedgenzent is givm
Each issue: 2 8 F. Subscription rates
( 4 issues or corresponding double issues per
year): 100 F (1 year); 160 F (2 years). Correspondence concerning subscrjbtìoin
should be addressed to the Commercial
@Unesco 1982 Services Division, Office of the Unesco
Pritited iti swìtzerlaiid Press, Unesco, 7 place de Fontenoy,
Imprimeries Populaires de Genève 7 5 7 O0 Paris, .France.

3. h e r i e and
cnltnridpolicies in Ldtin America
and the Caribbean
Editorial 71
Il.luseum development and cultural policy : aim, prospects aiid challenges 72
Sergio Dur& Pitarque
and Belén Rojas Guardia Museum jnancing: taking up the challenge 83
Fernanda de Camargo-Moro New dire~tìol-zs museum organization 86
in
Felipe Lacouture Aspects o f sa trainiizg 9 O
tf
Sylvio Muta1 Museology courses organized by UNDP, Unesco and Colcultura 94
Unesco-ICOM Documentation
Centre TabLe of professional training courses 98
OPINION
Luis Monreal A hundred years of solitude? 101
ALBUM
Niède Guidon Rock art throughout the contiBent 103
José Balza The Galeria de Arte Nacional, Caracas 105
Gérard Collomb and
Yves Renard On Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) : a comi?zunity and its ecomuseuin 109
Rubén Stehberg In Chile the National Museum o f Natural Histoy develops
archaeological sites 11 4
Reina Torres de Araúz The Site Museum o the El Caño Archaeologìcal Park 117
f
Alejandro Rojas Garcia A local4 created restoration centre in Guatemala 121
Gloria Zea de Uribe Recent advances ìn Colombian museoloal 124
Frances Kay Brinkley The eastem Caribbean: a museum on wey island 127
Eusebio Leal Spengler The Museum of Havana: mirror of a city 130
RETURN AND RESTITUTION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY
Rodrigo Pallares Zaldumbide Cases for restitution 132
Reina Torres de Araúz Museum and the containment of illicìt trafic 134
ISSN 0027-3996 Alueum (Unesco, Paris), Vol. xxXn7,No. 2 , 1982

5. You have also avoided corztemplating the cultural heritage azd its depositories, such
as museum, from the sole uieuIpoiizt of inaterialpreservation, but have rather regarded
thetnjrst a?zdforemost as a means of educating and enrichìng the lìues ofpeople, aizd
ds the most obuious e$wession of cultural
The purpose of this issue is twofold. On the one hand, it is intended to
provide a platform for a group of museum professionals in Latin America and
the Caribbean to share ideas and information with colleagues both within the
region and throughout the world. It has another, ‘strategic’, purpose : to bring
the significance of museum development to the attention of the policy- and
FroiztrJpiece: MUSEO ARTECOLONIAL,
DE decision-makers who will be attending the World Conference on Cultural
La Paz, Bolivia. Policies, Mexico City, 26 July-5 August 1982.
[Photo: S. de Vajay.] Our regional focus was chosen to coincide with this international event
taking place on Latin American soil. But the museum problems explored here
exist everywhere, particularly in other Third World countries where cultural
development-and, a fortiori, the role of museums in that process-still
awaits the place it deserves.
Volume XXV, No. 3 (1973), of this magazine, entitled ‘The role of
museums in today’s Latin America’, was an overview (but excluding the
Caribbean) of the situation ten years ago. It opened up new hopes for the
future. It is now time to take stock. Furthermore, our Editorial Board has been
concerned with the meagre representation in the pages of Museum of the
museum life in the region, with the obvious exception of that of Mexico.2’
This special issue-together with additional material received but which can-
not be printed here for lack of space-will certainly help fill this lacuna.
Both the thematic articles that open the issue and the monographs in the
‘Album’ section were solicited and written with the cultural policy framework
in mind. What role can and should be given to museums in our societies
today ? The concrete examples of museums that respond to a deep-rooted need
or meet it admirably, each on its own scale and specialized terrain, will, we
hope, speak with conviction to the Mexico City meeting. The notion of
cultural development launched by Unesco at the first such World Conference,
held in Venice some twelve years ago, has indeed come a long way. But
certainly not far enough. Quoting that concept, one already convinced deci-
sion-maker had this to say about museums :
1 . Amadou-hlahtar h.I’Bow, Director-General Their educational role, the opportunity for direct contact between the public and the
of Unesco, in his closing address to the products of the mind, the juxtaposition they can bring about between works of
Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies
in Latin America and the Carribcan, Bogotá, different cultures, their function of preserving a fragile past, of study and of research
2 0 January 1978. on the cultural heritage from the beginning of time, their special role of organizing
2 . In a recent tally of issues published between
1970 and 1980 it was found that out of a total
the behaviour and the outlock of a society towards its own past and the past of others
of 1 9 1 0 pages printed only 156, or 8 per cent, at one particular moment, all amount to fundamental, irreplaceable aspects of a living
concerned Latin America and the Caribbean. culture. To give this up, to slacken on the effort that this involves, would be to
3 . Extract from the speech entitled ‘Museums:
Heritage and Living Culture’, given by Jacques compromise cultural development irreparably. In this sense, museums are not a sur-
Rigaud, Director-General of Radio-Télé vival or an anachronism. , . .they m e a drivìtigfot.ce behì?zd cultural dweZopmmt. Govern-
Luxembourg and former Assistant ments or societies who do not accept this idea and all it involves in terms of will-
Director-General of Unesco, at ICOM’s Twelfth
General Conference, Mexico City, 25 October- power and effort, in particular the financial implications, are condemning cultural
4 November 1980. Printed in PtoceeditzgJ of the development at more or less short term.j
Twelfth Gmeral GxfËmce md Thiytemth GetzeraL
Au&,$ o tbe Itmzatiotzal Cound o hfusezrmns,
f f
Pais, ICOM, 1981, pp. 44-5. W e hope this issue of Museum will help support that claim.

6. 72
Musenm dkvelobmentund
With the participation of
Marta Arjona, Frances Kay Brinkley,
Fernanda de Camargo-Moro,
Roderick C. Ebanks,
Manuel Espinoza, Felipe Lacouture,
Luis G. Lumbreras,
Aloisio Magalhaes, Grete Mostny
The article below was prepared Museum entirely on the basis o contributions
f
requested from Marta Arjona, Director of the Cultural Heritage, Cuba; Frances
Kay Brinkley, a volunteer museologist in the eGtern Caribbean; Femanda de
Camargo-Moro, Director-General of Museums, State of Rio de Janeiro; Roderick C.
Ebanh, Director of the Museums and Archaeological Division, Institute ofJamaica;
Manuel Erpinoza, Director of the National A r t Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela;Fe@e
Lacouture, Director of the National Museum o f History, Mexico City; Luis G.
Lumbreras, archaeologist and fomzer Director of the National Museum of Anthro-
pologv and Archaeology, Lima, Peru; Aloisìo Magalhaes, Secretary of State for
Culture, Brazil; and Grete Mostny, Director of the National Maseum of Natural
History, Santiago de &ìle. The various contributions were sent to the UNDP/Unesco
Regional Project for the Cultural Heritage at Limu, Peru, where Miss Juana True4
ARAWAK MUSEUM, Jamaica. A museum that
a linguist and specialist in comparative literature associated with theproject, prepared
respects the oldest indigenous population an initial synthaìs.
of the Caribbean. Stone nietate and crusher, The contributing authors have been in the forefront of the museum movement in
used by the Arawaks to crush corn. Latin America and the Caribbean; many of them are already well known to profes-
A.D. 1000 t O 1500.
[Photo; Arawak Museum.]
sional colleagues. Because of the role they play today-whether localb, regionally or
intemationd&-ìn museum curatorsh@, management and excbmge or in the formu-
lation and execution of national heritage protection policìes, Museum asked each of
these specialìsts to send us a few pages on the ‘state ofthe art’ on the Latin American
and Caribbean museum scene. In view of the forthcoming Vorld Conference on Cul-
tural Policies (Mexico Ci@ 26 July4 August 1982) we asked these authors to
eqblore the problems of mzaeums with particular reference to cultural policies in their
countries. Each replied in his or her own terms. The synthesis that follows is neither
a thorough objective survey of the situation as ir is today nor a blueprint for the
future. We hope, however, that it captures the pulse of museological l f e in the region,
whose museum face challenges that are similar to those foundthroughout the Third
TVorld
Latin America and the Caribbean make up a vast cultural mosaic of autoch-
thonous as well as European, African and, in some cases, Asian contributions.
This cross-cultural identity is still evolving, and the peoples of the region
are becoming increasingly aware of the specific values and creative potential of
their various heritages. In this process, now that they are at long last perceived
as a vital source of inspiration for development, museums are being called
upon to play a major role.
The cultural policies of the states of the region are as diverse as the cultures
themselves and the political and socio-economic systems that are found here.

7. Museum development and cultural policy : aims, prospects and challenges 73
In spite of these differences, however, the global definition of culture proposed
by the National Institute of Culture of Panama would no doubt be welcomed
by all:
The simplest definition of culture is that it is any intentional action taken by man that
affects the world of nature. In accordance with this anthropological definition, the
concept of culture embraces all sorts of things which reflect material and spiritual
values in the historical dimension. It covers everything done by man: the experience
acquired in his labours, the mechanisms he uses for communicating his experiences so
that they may be reproduced, the methods by which he reveals their importance.
Production, technology and the relations established by people among themselves to
produce; and to distribute what has been produced-in other words, the very organ-
ization of society-are all part of culture.’
This new approach to culture is both the product and the promoter of a new
way of conceiving the role of the museum.
Ten years of euolation
1. Panama, Nation: Institute of Culture,
The round table entitled ‘The Role of Museums in Today’s Latin America’, ctLLtural i,z thr RqtLbiic of p. 18,
organized by Unesco at Santiago de Chile in 1972, marked a turning-point for Paris, Unesco, 1978.
MUSEU PARAENSE EMILIO GOELDI, Brazil.
Scientific research that includes both nature
and culture and is based on field-work is
the cornerstone of any global
socio-economic plan to fulfil the museum’s
responsibilities towards the heritage of man.
[Photo: Pedro Oswaldo Cruz.]

8. 74 Museum development and cultural policy:
MUSEO IGNACIO AGWIONTE,Camaguëy,
Cuba. Exhibition hall on the presence of NACIONAL
~~USEO DE BEUAS
ARTES,
Havana.
blacks in Cuba and the slave trade. Exhibition Pwniture in Cuba.
[Photo: O Paolo Gasparini.] [Photo: Grandal, Havana.]
.. . . ... . .. .
the museology of the region. Significantly enough, that meeting was an en-
counter-no doubt one of the first of its kind-between museum people and
specialists in a variety of natural, social and applied science disciplines. Out of
this interdisciplinarity, the only adequate approach to contemporary reality,
emerged the idea of a particular social mission for the museums of the region
and the definition of the ‘integral museum’. These ideas would surely be valid
anywhere, and in the Latin American context they required as much
transformation of the institution’s role as they did entirely new ideas and
conceptions.*
Previously, museums had tended to be static institutions primarily con-
cerned with the custody and scientific classification of a heritage all too often
detached from the needs of present-day society, or-in the case of the art
museums-dedicated to the values of European art. In the last decade,
however, museums have taken on the challenge of making this heritage rel-
evant to contemporary cultural development and creativity.
The new conception naturally brought with it a new set of principles and
criteria. Ten years later, what sort of assessment can be made ? Are those ideas
still valid ? What are the iurrent preoccupations and new directions ? If so how
can we assess their implementation? What impact have they made on the
policy-makers and decision-makers ?
The first answer would be to say that the lesson of Santiago is still of
2. As neatly expressed by Mario E. Teruggi in
the issue of hlusezm devoted to the round table, fundamental relevance.
‘the Santiago round table introduced a new way In Mexico, for example, museological practice has certainly kept up with
of posing problems in connection with museums,
for a little reflection shows us that a subtle
statements of principle. Yet even Felipe Lacouture, Director of the Museo
difference has crept into the approach to museums Nacional de Historia (National Museum of History) in Mexico City, warns
as cultural institutions. Up to now a museum has that ‘museums cannot stand apart from the major national needs and prob-
only been conceived in terms of the ast, which
is its raison d’être. Museologists assemgle, lems. Because of the place of the continent in the international division of
catalogue, conserve and exhibit the works, labour, large numbers of people do not have access to the type of life enjoyed
including the throwouts, of previous cultures,
close to or far removed from our own. In the in the industrialized nations. .. . Likewise, a situation derived from the social
temporal dimension, the museum is a vector division of labour affects the culture of a large segment of the population,
which starts in the present and whose far end is
in the past. With the round table’s agreement which has no access to education and lives in the most precarious conditions.
that the museum should take on a role in We certainly cannot afford the luxury of an unstructured type of museology,
development, it is simply intended to inverse the
direction of the temporal vector which we now
one that is mere dilettantism. It must be based on a global view, in order to
get with its starting-point at some moment in integrate man into his total context.’
the past, with its far end, the “arrowhead”, Roderick C. Ebanks, Head of the Institute of Jamaica’s Museums and Ar-
reaching the present and even beyond it into the
future. In a certain sense the museologist is being chaeological Division, emphasizes the fact that ‘the implications of the con-
asked to cease merely scavenging the jetsam of cept of cultural identity are great, especially in a country like Jamaica, charac-
the past and become, in addition, an expert on
the present and forecaster of the future.’ terized by cultural pluralism based on European, African, mulatto and Asiatic
(rWusetma, Vol. XXV, No. 3 , 1973, pp. 131-2.) heritages. Out of this plurality of forms and concepts, a new nation emerged

9. aims, prospects and challenges 75
MusEu AO AR LIVRE,Orleans, Brazil. The
MUSEU RUA,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A
DA museum under construction in 1980. Local
group of photographic panels, ready to be artisans and masons from the area are
set up in different parts of the city, attract a themselves building their museum, using
new type of public and display traditional techniques. The town of Orleans
contemporary social and urban problems. can be seen in the background.
[Photo: Gabriel Carvalho.] [Photo: Museu ao Ar Livre.]
in 1762. These different heritages, often antagonistic to each other, have to be
reconciled. Thus, museums in Jamaica have the challenging role of assisting
in the fulfilment of our national motto: “Out of many, one pe~ple”.’~
Manuel Espinoza, Director of the Galería de Arte Nacional (National Art
Gallery) in Caracas, also believes that museums in developing countries are
essential in determining and strengthening the personality of the nation : ‘If
museums formerly looked to what was being done and appreciated abroad,
today their task is to promote national identity.’
Cuba, a country with only seven museums in 1959, has more than sixty
museum facilities throughout the country today. A characteristic of the Cuban
cultural policy has been the interest placed on national roots. Marta Arjona,
Director of the Cultural Heritage in Cuba, recalls the words of José Marti,
which, though written in 1891, are very applicable to today’s situation :
The history of America, starting with the Incas and up to the present, must be taught
thoroughly, even though the history of Greece is not taught. Our Greece is preferable
to the Greece which is not ours. It is more necessary to us.. . . The rest of the world
must be grafted on our republics, but our republics must constitute the trunk.
‘When analysing museums and their relation to culture,’ says Marta Arjona,
‘it is essential to bear in mind the reality of America’s history. If we want to
help rescue the cultural values of our nations by means of the museum, we
must start by rescuing historical truth. Can we study the presence of blacks in
our lands without mentioning the savagery of slavery? Can we talk of our 3 . Jamaican museology began to stir in a more
natural resources without mentioning the exploitation of the Indian, the first modern spirit during the mid-1970s. For the first
element of our identity? Can we mention our geography, the beauty of our eighty years of its existence the collections of the
Institute of Jamaica comprised Arawak and
natural resources, without pointing to the destruction brought about by in- Amerindian finds and natural history specimens.
satiable foreigners who violate it ?, The collections have expanded rapidly in the last
twenty years, and today the institute’s
Another clear example of the affirmation of national values is the Museo del Archaeological Division operates seven museums :
Hombre Panameño in Panama, which occupies, symbolically enough, what the African Museum, based on objects from the
west coast of Africa; the Arawak Museum at
used to be the terminal station of the former Panama Railroad Company. This Whitemarl, located at the site of Jamaica’s largest
American company, inaugurated in the middle of the nineteenth century, Amerindian settlement; the Fort Charles Maritime
represented a long period of economic and cultural domination by the United Museum at Port Royal ; the Military Museum ;
the National Museum of Historical Archaeology,
States in the Isthmus. Today the museum exhibits an extraordinary collection which includes an explanation of the
of objects testifying to a national culture synthesized through centuries of archaeological process ; Old King’s House
Archaeological Museum (which was the
cohabitation among at least a dozen ethnic groups. In its different didactic governor’s residence up to 1S72) ; the Peoples’
exhibits-Synthesis of Panamanian Culture, Archaeology, Gold, Culture Con- Museum of Craft and Technology, based on a
collection of indigenous crafts and industrial
tact and Ethnography-a material summary of the past and present of Pana- elements used and created in Jamaica over the
manian man is displayed. past 300 years.

10. 76 Museum development and cultural policy:
Commumizting
Luis G. Lumbreras, archaeologist and former Director of the National
Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology of Lima, agrees with Felipe Iacou-
ture when he states: ‘We cannot talk of a culture of “products” without
mentioning the “producers”. In many of our history museums the people are
absent.’
Lumbreras is convinced that museums must help create a social conscience
which is projected positively to the future ; he warns against the regressive
connotation which some archaeological museums communicate. ‘Museums
which enhance the past’, he says, ‘to the detriment of the present and the
future give a false image of history. Pride in the past is a false pride if the
permanent character of social change is not put forward as well. Museums
should show the tasks already carried out by the people, and those still to be
undertaken.’* This global approach to the historical process will be taken into
account in the museography and displays of the new National Museum of
Anthropology and Archaeology of Lima. (An article on the project will appear
in a future issue.)
Such intentions as those just described denote clearly that the educational
role of the museum is at the heart of the ambitions expressed by the region’s
museologists. It was already implicit in the formulation of a ‘social mission’
that was put forward at Santiago. A more recent cultural policy statement
from Costa Rica puts it directly:
Museums should not be buildings in which historic and artistic objects are accumu-
lated, but centres for education and diversion, equipped to supplement the education
and cultural training of the people. They should be one further component in the
complex machinery of education, which is designed to enable all the members of
society, without discrimination, whether intentional or not, to live an active cultural
life.s
Felipe Lacouture recalls that, having defined the museum as ‘a centre of com-
munication by means of objects’, the Santiago round table stressed ‘the advan-
tage of setting up permanent methods of evaluating exhibitions, in order to
know whether the community was truly profiting by them’.
‘The problem of communication’, points out Lacouture, ‘is especially acute
in Latin America, where museum visitors have traditionally been inhibited and
uncritical. Communication means dialogue, not imposition. In order to have
dialogue, we must have feedback. If not, we only transmit a message, but do
not know how it has been received.
‘It is essential to get to know the public in our continent,’ he continues,
‘its reaction to exhibits, its ability to understand them. W e must take into
account visitors’ opinions and suggestions. Unfortunately, this dialogue with
the public only takes place in a few of the large museums.’
It is all very well to define museums as ‘mass education centres’. But how
4. Sylvio Mutal, Chief Technical Adviser and
can one reach a public that does not visit museums?
Regional Co-ordinator of the UNDP/Unesco The population of the region was about 63 million at the beginning of the
Regional Project for the Cultural Heritage, recalls century. Today it is 5 23 million. At the end of the century it will have reached
that often the collections in archaeological
museums have been established following 63 O million. Says Felipe Lacouture : ‘Mexico City, at the beginning of the
aesthetic criteria alone and do not reflect the century, occupied an area of 40 square kilometres ; today this area surpasses
whole history of the period : ‘The art shown, of
which we feel proud, is the product of a 5 O0 square kilometres. Now, traditionally, the problem of museums was
dominant social class, often a theocracy. But a solved by building large ones. W e may well ask ourselves: “How do these
museum must be the reflection of the whole
historical process : it must show how the museums function today in such vast metropolitan areas ?” W e cannot con-
common people lived, what they produced. Only tinue to conceive our museology in terms of these great “banks of objects”,
thus is it possible for the common visitor to whose action is so limited. Museums must reach the public at large. Some
identify himself with past history.’
5 . Samuel Rovinski, Cnltural Poli9 in Costa efforts have been made, but the time has come for each of the large national
Rica, p. 49, Paris, Unesco, 1977. museums to establish true “branches” in the different urban areas. These would
6. Reacting precisely to the urban explosion,
museums in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, form a network of small entities not only dedicated to the museum’s tradi-
sought to go beyond their own walls by tional functions, but where the active participation of the community could
participating in the ‘Museus da Rua’ (street
museums) experiment. Exhibits and panels were also be tapped.’6
Set up in the streets in different parts of the city. In Chile, for example, museums and universities work in close collabor-

11. aims, prospects and challenges 77
ation ; often the higher-echelon museum staff, apart from doing research, also
teach at a university. Many museums publish their own scientific reviews. Dr
Grete Mostny remarks, however, that ‘we need to establish a pedagogy suited
to the museum-still lacking in Chile-in order to develop a strategy for the
communication of knowledge’. Nevertheless, a number of experiments
launched by museums, such as the ‘Juventudes Científicas de Chile’ (Science
for the Youth of Chile) and their ‘Ferias Científicas Juveniles’ (Young Peoples’
Scientific Fairs) have become an important national movement and receive the
support of the National Committee for Scientific and Technological Research
(CONICYT) and the Academy of Sciences of the Instituto de Chile.
In Jamaica, museologists planning exhibitions that tie the different heritages
into the others and try to reveal as much as possible of the continental histor-
ies are careful to prepare didactic exhibits that take into account the fact that
60 per cent of the population is illiterate. In order to make this information
accessible, museum attendants have been trained to carry out guided tours. In
addition, a three-dimensional exhibition script format is being developed,
starting at a basic literate level and going up to a high-school fifth-form level.
At this stage, in the light of such hopes, the critical observer will be justified
in asking how well practice has corresponded to theory or, to put it more
bluntly, to what extent the means available have been adequate to the ambi-
tions expressed. Museums in Latin America and the Caribbean-with the
possible exception of one or two of the most prosperous countries-share the
scarcity of financial resources and the relatively low priority in the hierarchy of
state-supported services that are the lot of museums throughout the develop-
ing world. At an informal consultation on the ‘state of the art’ with respect
to the preservation and presentation of the cultural heritage, organized by
Unesco in Paris in June 1981, it was pointed out that many countries lack a
‘clear national policy for the protection of the cultural heritage, defined opera-
tionally as part of the overall development planning process. The problem is
both one of decision-making and of a society-wide approach. At government
t FORTCHARLES MARITIME MUSEUM, Royal,
Port
Jamaica. A museum devoted to maritime
history and technology in the region,
created in 1978 and installed in Nelson’s
House.
[Photo; Fort Charles Maritime Museum.]
Latin America’s rich architectural heritage is
given a new life as museums are created in
historic buildings. The courtyard of the
Palacio de la Real Audiencia, a neoclassical
building dating from 1804, the former seat
of the supreme colonial authority, which
is being restored to its original character
and will house the Museo Histórico
Nacional de Chile.
[Photo; Museo Histórico Nacional de Chile.]

12. 78 Museum development and cultural policy: .
CHILENO ARTE
MUSEO DE PRECOLOMBINO,
Santiago de Chile. Conservation and
laboratory infrastructure is still lacking in
many institutions. This museum,
inaugurated in December 1981, has a
well-equipped textile conservation and
restoration workshop.
[Photo: Museo Chileno de Arte
Precolombino.]
level, as at the level of the general public, preservation and presentation of the
heritage are viewed as something apart from life and culture today.’
Among the specific points noted were the following :
7 . Afo~semzhopes nevertheless that the material
presented here will prove to be sufficiently Insufficient protective legislation, which is the basic instrument of decision-
thought-provoking to justify some frank making.
self-evaluation that might be published in a
future issue. Personnel and human resources-the instrument of implementation-to pro-
8. Eduardo Martinez, La politira culturd in tect cultural property are not adequately provided by states, even when the
Mé.-ico, pp. 67-8, Paris, Unesco, 1977.
9 . Solana explained that ‘in keeping with the latter adopt legislation that indicates the necessity of such infrastructure.
first of these principles, the government considers The necessity to clarify the processes of policy-making in relation to the cul-
museums above all as attestations of freedom of tural heritage. Who are the policy-makers ? What expertise is required for
creativity and cultural expression. Al museums,
l
each according to its character and p-irpose, must policy-making? How can the policy-makers be influenced ?
testify to the unrestricted development of culture, Shortcomings in the way the region’s museum professionals themselves have
be it at the international, national, or local level.
They must not hamper spontaneity and genuine attempted to overcome these obstacles to this situation have been implied in
art, scientific discovery or historical facts with the observations cited above. Too implicitly perhaps, and some readers may
tempomy official interpretations. Museums are by
nature generous, hospitable and essentially find the self-assessment, together with the comments formulated in other
anti-doctrinarian institutions. articles, somewhat lacking in critical force.’
‘The increase and improvement of our Be that as it may, and in defence of museum workers themselves, it cannot
museums are evidence of the support and
stimulus that the Mexican Government, by virtue be denied that many governments of the region have not yet realized the place
of the second principle mentioned, is givirig to of museums in the success of their cultural policy. There are noteworthy
cultural creativity.
‘The state’s intervention in ensuring the exceptions. In Mexico and Venezuela, for example, museums are an integral
accessibility, dissemination and distribution of part of a programme clearly stated in national development plans. Thus
cultural properties-the third principle-applies
especially to museums. The government considers Mexico’s National Plan for 1977-82 states :
them to be an integral part of education and it
intends to convert them into dynamic With a view to promoting a better knowledge of the nation’s history and of the
instruments of a truly democratic education. In archaeological and ethnographical characteristics of the population, the National Plan
particular, it is encouraging teachers to use foresees, among other things, the establishment of a National Organization of
museums as an educational resource and to
introduce their pupils to the habit of visiting and Museums. Existing museums in both small and large towns would be linked to it. As
enjoying them. a result, the inhabitants of the country will be able to have a view as complete as
‘Finally, museums are an invaluable help in
preserving the national cultural heritage, the
possible of the historical and cultural heritage of the nation and of the world. This will
fourth of the principles guiding Mexican cultural be done in a programmed manner. An endeavour will also be made to initiate students
policy. This last point is particularly relevant in in the study of museography, at different educational levels, by organizing small
view of the title theme of this conference: “The
World’s Heritage-the Museum’s museums in each school, where objects of a purely local or even personal significance
Responsibilities”. could be shown?
‘Every country must preserve and disseminate
the cultural properties that constitute the Delivering the inaugural address at ICOM’s Twelfth General Conference in
particular characteristics of its peoples. Artefacts Mexico City, Fernando Solana, Mexico’s Minister of Public Education, made
produced by man last longer than he does and
have the virtue of evoking the human realities it clear that the four principles underlying his government’s cultural policy-
that gave rise to present forms of cultural ‘freedom for creation, encouragement of cultural production, participation in
expression. Governments have a duty to preserve
the cultural heritage of their countries and to the distribution of cultural properties and services and preservation of the
stimulate the creativity of their peoples. nation’s cultural heritage’-also applied to the development of museum^.^
This duty goes hand in hand with the obligation
to strengthen sovereignty and national
‘Venezuela’, says Manuel Espinoza, ‘constitutes a unique case in the context
independence.’ of Latin America. Its democratic experience has generated a level of conscious-

13. aims, prospects and challenges 79
ness in cultural matters which demands of the government . . . the clear for- DE
G A L E ~ A *RTE NACIONAL, Cmcas. To
show the HueLfas (‘Traces’) exhibition,
mulation of a “model of cultural development” required in a democratic and presenting ancient pre-Columbian
plural society, with full participation of its members.’ civilizations. the museum adamed and
- The Sixth National Development Plan for 1981-85 has incorporated, for remodelled its spaces.
the first time, a special chapter devoted to the development of culture, drawn de Arte
up on the basis of data furnished by the institutions themselves. In this sense,
the museums have established their own Five-Year Plan.
‘Venezuela’s museums’, says Espinoza, ‘had been the promoters of a type of
art produced and valued internationally in the world‘s capitals, ignoring the
cultural and historic requirements of their own community.’ The 1970s
brought a growing awareness of a true domestic role and responsibility. (See
article by José Balza in this issue of Maseam.)
One of the tasks of the National Culture Council (CONAC), the leading
organism for cultural development in Venezuela, is to stimulate museum ac-
tivities. Improvements in the infrastructure and the use of available space in
the principal museums and galleries will be made. Likewise, training courses
for museum personnel will be established, museum publications programmes
will be supported, and conservation and restoration centres will be set up. Aid
will also be given to the National Centre for Information and Documentation
on the Plastic Arts.
In Chile, on the other hand, where no centralized institution exists, there
has been an extraordinary revival of museums in recent years. As elsewhere, the
first Chilean museums were created in the early days of independence. The
National Museum, known today as Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, dates
back to 1830. At the turn of the century, Chile had 8 museums; in 1972
there were 61. Today they number 1 5 O .
From defilzz!tions t o livilzg mlzztseums
Museum professionals deplore the gap between cultural policies that postulate
a comprehensive and living definition of culture and the actual support
governments extend to museums, which may still be derived from limited and
elitist notions. In Brazil, however, Aloisio Magalhaes, Secretary of State for
Culture, Director of SPHAN (Sub-secretariat of Historical and Cultural Herit-
age) and of the Pro-MemÓria Foundation, points out that ‘culture constitutes
a global process. It is not separate from environmental conditions. One cannot
enhance products (a house, a temple, an artefact, a dance) to the detriment of
the conditions of the ecological space in which these products were made.
‘Culture and education are considered an indissoluble whole, that is to say,
that the learned knowledge of the professional who plans a building, a house,

14. 80 Museum development ánd cultural policy :
a school, a church or a city finds its equivalent in the popular know-how of
those who, from childhood, have learned from the local craftsmen the skills
applied in agriculture or fishing, or in the production of ceramics and textiles.
‘This orientation of our cultural policy led us to place special attention on
small, regional museums, called the “everything” museums, linked to the rural
environment.
‘We try to transform these museums into increasingly active community
centres, which will come nearer to the “integral museum” concept.
‘This policy is centrally conceived and administered by the Ministry of
Education and Culture. Institutional mechanisms have been created to pro-
mote both artistic creativity-literature, theatre, music, cinema and the visual
arts-and the preservation and presentation of cultural property. Taken to-
gether, both of these areas are of capital importance in regard to the new
concept of museums and of their role in society.’
For example, the Museu ao Ar Livre of Orleans (a town in the state of Santa
Catarina in southern Brazil) was planned with and handed over to the local
community by SPHAN and the Pro-MemÓria Foundation. The museum
shows, in a dynamic way, the technological culture of the nineteenth- century
immigrants and their descendants so as to revitalize the cultural life of the
region and give support to local schools by sponsoring ‘learning experiences’
where children come into contact with the culture of the area. It was proposed
to the federal institutions and educational organizations by the local people
themselves, who actually carried out the project.
They used traditional building techniques to construct the museum, em-
ploying local craftsmen and masons. A special effort was made to preserve
harmony with the surrounding environment. Endangered species among the
region’s flora were conserved.
Another museum organized by the community is the Museu Casa Setecen-
tista, located in the Casa da Princesa in the city of Pilar de Goiás (State of
Goiás). This is literally a ‘live’ museum, since the premises are used for com-
munity meetings and other activities. The museum was inaugurated on 28
June 1 9 8 1 , the day of the celebration of the popular feast of the Holy Spirit.
Both this house and the Casa de Câmara e Cadeia, in the same city, were
restored by SPHAN/Pro-MemÓria. Following suggestions made by the com-
munity, the Casa de Câmara e Cadeia will become the headquarters for the
youth clubs of the city.
Self-he& comes jîrst
These few examples remind us that in Latin America and the Caribbean, as
elsewhere, museum development cannot afford to turn its back on private
initiative, especially when the contribution of the state may be supple-
mented-or indeed replaced-by a commitment that is not necessarily the
finance provided by the commercial or industrial sector (see article, p. 84
below) but rather the labour of individual members of a community. Indeed,
unless personal commitment is actually achieved, how credible are the
museum’s claims to be serving its community ?
Frances Kay Brinkley, Curator of the Carriacou Historical Society Museum,
tells the unusual story of this museum, created by the community on this
island dependency of Grenada, only 24 km long and 8 km wide. The museum
was established without any government funding.
At the time of the creation of the museum, Carriacou had a population of
about 7,000, mainly small farmers, fishermen, sailors and boatbuilders. Says
Brinkley : ‘It was not, you would think, very fertile ground in which to start
an historical society and museum. Ninety-five per cent of the ,population
didn’t know what a museum 2uas. The idea began floating around in 1974.
Some of the island‘s inhabitants (the hotel administrator and his wife, a young
bartender, the wife of the island’s only planter, an artist) had been collecting
old stoneware jars, and digging for Amerindian artefacts. These were really the
nucleus when the floating idea was verbalized.’

15. aims, prospects and challenges 81
Before starting, the group made a general inventory of the specific heritage
of the material culture of the islanders which needed to be preserved and of
which the latter should be made aware. The group had to decide what the
collections would contain and on what basis the museum would function.
They also considered whether to ask th: government for aid or not.
Since Carriacou has three cultural heritages-African, Amerindian and
European-the museum was planned with a section for each culture. ‘As to
funding,’ observes Frances Kay Brinkley, ‘considering the political situation at
that time, it was decided not to ask for the government’s help. The main
source of funds would be membership dues. These came from Regular and
Associate Members and Patrons. A Special Associate Membership was estab-
lished, open only to Carriacouans living on the island. W e did not want
anyone saying he was not a member because he could not afford the fee. The
minimum due was set at 1 EC a year (2.70 EC = $1).’
Another important decision was what to include in the museum’s collec-
tion. The criteria were the amount of space available, achieving a balance of
collections and securing public interest : ‘The first two are obvious restrictions
for all museums. The third took a form that is perhaps something that would
not occur to a European museologist. If you .have succeeded in giving people
an affection for and a pride in their museum, they are going to start bringing
you things they have at home. Naturally, sometimes there will be things you
will have to refuse. But it is better to take them and store them (if they are
not welcome, or are absolute horrors) than damping the enthusiasm for the
museum born in the donor’s heart.’
But in the final analysis and despite such success stories, museums must
continue to rely heavily on state support. Roderick C. Ebanks reminds us aptly
that ‘the task of museum development in Third World countries passing
through an economic crisis is a very real challenge. But the lack of financing
is not the major factor in the lack of development. Rather lack of knowledge,
of trained people, of clearly defined objectives, of advanced planning and of
integrated cultural services all play havoc with the best intentions.’
The solution proposed by this museum expert is, in the first place, to
motivate professionally the museum staff and to educate the public. Among
the latter are the politicians and administrators of cultural affairs, who ‘are not
informed about museums and their demands: they think about museums as
storehouses for national exotica, or as a way of enticing a few more dollars
from the tourist’s pocket. Consequently, they are not encouraged to invest
funds in a museum. W e must make these senior decision-makers and policy-
makers aware of the museological process.’
BANCO CONTINENTAL,Lima. Children and
museums.
[Photo: s. Mutal.]

16. 82
MUSEO HOhlBRE PANAhfEÑO, Panama.
DEL
Interpreting the history of the region’s
material culture.
[Photo; Sylvio hhtal.]
MUSEO ARQUEOLOGICO Y GALERIASARTE
DE
DEL BANCO CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR, Quito.
Christ being baptized by John the Baptist.
[Photo: S. Mutal.]

17. *
Sergio Durán Pitarque In Latin Americu und the Curib6emi-a curred in recefzt years. IB Bruzil utzd
throughout the developifig worl&the over- Venezuelu, for exumple, the government hm
Born in Quito, Ecuador, in 1949. Studied riding museum problem is the luck of jmds. given substuntìul jítzuncial support to
economics at the Universidad Central del
Ecuador. Attended courses at the Churubusco
Their poverty e.x.luins why inost museum museums. Im Ecuudor und Colovdia nzuseunz
Centre, Mexico, and the First Course for operute us stutic iiistitzitiorzs, incapuble of uctiuio has been encouraged by contributioizs
Directors and Administrators of Museums of reaching out to the conzmunity o f which thty from the stute uizd psiriate bunks dike# The
Latin America at the School of Restoration and fom u part. The sume compluint froin private sector is BOW more uwure of the vulue
Museology, Bogotá. Visiting lccturer, Second museum directors ui2d stuff cuti be heurd time of museunis, diid its help ilzjífinun&zg them is
Course for Directors and Administrators, School
of Restoration and Museology, Bogotá. Deputy
und uguin : We cun’t do u~ything becuuse we itzcreusing, ulbeit ìti un ad hoc und sporudic
Director of the Museums of the Central Bank of buvez ’t the mowy. ’ M u y si?@f cunnoty wuy.
Ecuador. Professor of Museology and ufford to mploj the necesmy quul$ed stuff; Finuncilzg is also a jíeld in which
Museography at the Instituto Tecnologico while others, which do huve stuff skilled in nzuseologists izeed to receive pec$c truining.
Equinoccial, School of Restoration and
Museography, Quito, Ecuador. Member of the
?nodem ?nuseologicul techniques, fiiid thut Ideulb, economists ui2d managers should ul-
Board of Directors of the Ecuadorian Association theirprojects ure thurted because they do tzot wuys be purt of the teum udnzim5terìrig u
of Museums. Has written articles for various possess the means to set up their exhibitiom nzuseu?n. As Jucques Riguud pointed out ut
periodicals. properb or store their collections in suituble ICOM ’s Tweyth Generul Confiremeir2 Mex-
conditiom. Museunis ure more o j h i thuiz not ico City, ‘the time has come to proclaim this
Belén Rojas Guardia unuble to ucquire tzew objects or establish truth :museum have become entetprises in the
efficient security systems. fullest and inost modem sense of the word
Born in Caripito, Venezuela, in 1945. Some countries with u rich historical trudi- Here ugain, their lot is izot vegl dzfferent
Anthropologist. Worked for ten years as a
producer of documentaries, mostly in the area of
tiorz-eciully pre-Colunzbim-are more )om that of other culturul institutions com-
scientific and technological development. Head of inclined to ullocute u shure of their budgets to mitted to creutivity, comewutioiz, und dis-
Production of four feature films : Fiebre, Suittutla, urchueologicul nzuseunzs, sime the authorities seniitzution, utid faced with the sume nzuiza-
Se solicita hlucbucbu and El T/ividor. Head of the regard them as tourist uttractions and con- geriul problem, whether it be in the jíeld of
Research Department at the National Art sider thut uny increase ìti tourism meuns eum- the theatre, of uudio-uisuuls, or o f iizultiple
Gallery ; at present Deputy Technical Director
with responsibilities for planning and ings fir the country. This urgunzent is wot culturul uctivities. In evegi cuse it is dzjicult
co-ordinating the museum’s technical activities. valid however, for ull couiztries niid, more to guin uccqtaiice of the idea thut culturul
iinportunt still, side-stqs the real role of the institutiom are both originul edties because
museum: un educutiofzal establishmezt de- of their objectives und also, in u certain wuy,
sigtzed for the co?ni?wiity It strengthens our entetprises, thut is to suy coinmuzities for
convictioiz thut ?nuseumswill receive adequate work and exhaizge, with utz uutonomous re-
fiizunCil2g only when govertments recognize qotzsibility for co?nbifzingull the meum avuil-
how i?>portunt are und that the object o f
they able to uchieve their goals.
every nzaseum (whether it deuls uith history, Ecuador und Venezuelu-one tuith u
science, te ch no log^! or naturul histoiy) is to strugglitig econonzy uiid the other u nzmnber of
present ull upects of the country’s culturul OPEC-both provide interesting exunzples of
identity und its devefopmetzt. Museum wifl be how the museum sector curz break the vicious
allocuted suffikent fuizh-of the sume order circle ofjnunce. Sergio Durún Pitarque, De-
as those eumzurked for health, education und pug Director of the hfuseunzs of the Ceztrul
social we@re-on.$ when goaemnze?zts con- Buizk of Ecuudor, afid Belén Rojas Guardiu,
sider them to be purt of the coutztry Ir integral Dtpugl Technicul Director of the Natioml
development. Art Gullery ita Caracus, ra-ponded to
Unfortunute.$, there is no detuiled com- Museum’s request for infoolrimtion. Some-
purutive anabsis bused on concrete jínutzciul what condensed versions of their two articles
dutu of how funds are allocuted to museums fokOUJ.
in the vurious couiztries. As a general rule,
the budget for stute museums is taker1 out of
funds allocuted to the ‘cultural sector’ as u
1. We should like to record our gratitude
whole, some of which are eamurked for to Juana True1 and Sylvio Mutal at the
tnuseunzs, The amouizts vuiy uccordit7g to the UNDP/Unesco Regional Project for the Cultural
prìorities estublished for each countiy ’s cul- Heritage in Lima, Pem, who prepared this
introductory section. The summary versions of
tural sector. the following two articles were also drafted
Significant changes huve tievertheless oc- by them.

18. Sergio Durán Pitarque On a practical level additional funds
may also be obtained through initiatives
taken directly by museum directors and
What can be done? their staff, e.g. :
Stimulating passage of a law allocatitlg to
museums revenue received through the
main export products from the area in
which they are located.
An administrative decision to allocate to
museums part of the receipts from
Whether they house collections that de- sion rights, etc ; donations (including sales of seized contraband goods.
pict a country’s archaeological wealth or contributions from the ‘Friends of the A similar measure could provide for a
colonial past, its historical development, Museum’ in their different categories) ; small tax to be imposed on admission
its -contemporary visual arts or architec- sale of reproductions, books and other ar- fees for different public shows, such as
tural development, museums are econ- ticles in the museum shops ;rental of pre- the cinema, sports meetings, etc.
omically and administratively dependent mises ; cafeteria ; subscription to publica- Some museums could hire out unimpor-
on two distinct systems: (a) central or tions, etc. These earnings are not gener- tant art works in order to raise funds.
regional governments or municipal ally administered by the museums them- Encouraging ICOM’s National Commit-
bodies ; (b) private individuals, founda- selves, however. On the contrary, they are tees, national museum associations or
tions and organizations. deposited in the treasury through the ministries of education and culture in
Government authorities at the various Ministries of Finance or in the bank ac- all the Latin American countries to
levels generally include museums in their counts of institutions or foundations. carry out objective analyses of the state
annual operational budgets. They almost The result is that not only do museums of our museums, so that we may iden-
invariably allocate minimal annual remain short of the resources they need, tify genuine needs and find possible
amounts that barely suffice for the upkeep they also are unable to recover the funds solutions to the problems.
of exhibition rooms with poorly or- they themselves generate. There are certainly many innovative ways
ganized museography, totally lacking in It is also true that the directors of of financing museums. For example, in
any didactic function. many museums adopt a rather devil- order to assist a small, well-established
Because of the museums’ lack of ad- may-care attitude. They are often elderly museum of religious art in one of our
ministrative and economic autonomy people dedicated to writing ‘memoirs’, small towns-with a not very religious
such budgets are not made directly avail- whose frames of reference are élitist ; in community-it was suggested that the
able to the museum directors. The result other words, museums are run by ‘refined inhabitants should be consulted about
of this is that the latter are never quite people’ who need give no thought to the possibility of each owner,of an elec-
sure what resources they can definitely reaching the general public. It is worth tricity meter donating to the museum the
count on for carrying out their pro- while to remember the words of Hernán equivalent of $3 per month over and
grammes. The budgets are quite inad- Crespo Toral, Director of the Museum of above his electricity costs. The consulta-
equate to the genuine needs, which are in the Central Bank of Ecuador: ‘The tion yielded positive results, and it is ex-
fact declared in the annual museum museum cannot be restricted to its pre- pected that the equivalent of $2,900 per
budget pro forma. Government approval mises, nor its message to a selected few: month will be collected.
l
is usually given for budgetary allocations the museum must reach everyone, be In many countries, institutions such as
for fixed expenditure. But, generally completely involved in existing problems, financial concerns, private banks with na-
speaking, there is no allocation of stable, or else disappear.’ tional capital, and autonomous state
let alone increasing, budgets that would What can be done to brighten such a bodies, especially the central or reserve
allow museums to augment their collec- gloomy situation ? The main challenge to banks, have taken cognizance of this
tions. This is probably the most impor- be taken up is obviously that of creating problem and have begun to lend decisive
tant reason for the pillaging of the cul- the necessary awareness among govern- support to museums. In these cases, the
tural heritage of Latin America and ment authorities. W e must help them to government offers tax concessions to pri-
Caribbean countries. realize that the preservation and presenta- vate businesses that donate such a percen-
In the case of private museums, funds tion of the cultural heritage constitute an tage of their profits. These firms
generally depend on the economic sol- essential basis for harmonious socio-econ- frequently acquire museum pieces, realiz-
vency of their owners and the interest on omic development. W e museum people ing their excellent investment value,
capital invested that is made over to the must expose the bitter paradox of multi- since cultural property never depreciates
management. This kind of museum has million-dollar budgets for the acquisition as other assets do; rather, the reverse is
greater autonomy and often a larger of war material that serves only for man’s true, since the price increases as time goes
budget, enabling it to reach out actively destruction of man, on the grounds that by. As for autonomous state institutions,
to the community. It is true, however, we must be ‘in a position to defend our their officials have grasped the fact that a
that there are also private museums that native soil‘, when we are frequently country’s socio-economic development
do not adequately carry out their museo- ignorant about our own history. cannot be separated from its cultural de-
logical functions, even though they are so W e also need to stimulate the estab- velopment, and have also realized that
financed. lishment of independent national funds properly presented the cultural heritage
Museums do not only incur expenses. for the support and promotion of artistic stimulates demand for enjoying it and
They also earn income in the form of en- and cultural activities. Private firms could leads to an increase in its economic prof-
trance fees ;photographic, film and televi- play a very important role in this field. itability.

19. Thus the Central Bank of Ecuador has Belén Rojas Guardia
acquired archaeological, ethnographic and
numismatic collections as well as colonial
and modern art. Thousands of objects are
now made accessible to Ecuador’s people
A fair share in Venezuela
through the bank‘s museums in Quito,
the capital, and in the cities of Guayaquil,
Cuenca and Manta, as well as its galleries
in Esmeraldas, Ambato, Latacunga, Rio-
bamba and Loja.
In addition to the budget it earmarks How museums obtain sufficient financial museums, justifying their claim to be al-
for the running of its museums, the bank resources; whether from state budgetary located resources as befits their role.
also donates funds each year exclusively allocations or through contributions The success achieved by the gallery in
for carrying out projects of archaeological from the private sector, will depend on a its first year, the formation of a team of
and anthropological research and the series of factors and circumstances. These professionals whose will and dedication
safeguard of monuments. Funds amount- include the priorities established for the were revealed by putting theory into
ing to as much as 3 5 million sucres a year cultural sector in any particular develop- effective practice (eighteen itinerant exhi-
(about a million dollars) are also ear- ment model, as expressed in a country’s bitions that travelled all over the coun-
marked to set up museums and present national plans, and the museum try ; research, conservation and preserva-
exhibitions throughout the country. authorities’ skill in implementing a bold tion) allowed it to obtain the targeted
This example could usefully be fol- and innovative fund-raising strategy. budget that year. This sum was approxi-
lowed by similar establishments in other The institution’s efficiency, dynamism mately equivalent to the budget for the
countries. Already the Banco de la Re- and scope are obviously decisive elements previous ten years combined. It did no
pública of Colombia is carrying out a of museum financing. The quality of its more than meet a need that had long
similar task, with the Museo del Oro and exhibits, its degree of responsibility and been ignored.
its archaeological research programmes. professionalism, its training and educa- This unprecedented measure gave rise
If the museums of Latin America and tional activity, its capacity to attract every to controversy about the rights of decen-
the Caribbean could rely on the under- kind of public-in short, any action that tralized cultural institutions to go directly
standing of those who govern them and confirms its historical role in shaping an to the legislature for their budgets. The
therefore on sufficient funds, they could authentic cultural identity-will be a debate was resolved in our favour, and
well become the most efficient vehicles positive asset. Venezuela has a demo- the country’s museums were given the
for promoting and disseminating culture, cratic, pluralist and participatory political go-ahead to implement projects vital to
by delivering valid messages and render- system, and an economy now grounded the country’s cultural personality, enab-
ing real service to our countries, helping in oil wealth, all the basic industries of ling them to consolidate their situation.
our people to overcome the bitter reality which are managed by the state. The In 1980 2 1 per cent of the total alloca-
of so many political, social, economic and latter assumes a clear responsibility to tions of the National Cultural Council
cultural problems. Effective museum ac- promote and encourage other sectors was set aside for the museum sector.
tivity will be the key that unlocks the (non-productive in the strict economic The museum’s active and dynamic
door to better days for the nations of sense) that form part of an overall de- presence in our society has generated a
Juárez, Bolívar and San Martin. velopment model, the final aim of which climate of confidence. New avenues of
is to stimulate the capacity for innovation financing are being opened up. These in-
[Transhted from Spanish] of individuals and communities in a har- clude the private sector, which is becom-
monious relationship with the environ- ing increasingly aware of the need to
ment. participate in and contribute to the de-
The state is the greatest, and almost velopment of an institution that belongs
exclusive, financial source of a large pro- and caters to everyone.
portion of the country’s cultural institu-
tions (whether they are governmentally [Tradated fi’oflz Spanish]
administered or not). In 1977 the new
National Art Gallery (see the article
p. 105) first took the initiative of directly
and independently presenting its draft
budget separate from the general budget
traditionally submitted to the National
Cultural Council (CONAC) . Logisti-
cally, this move attracted the attention of
organizations concerned with budgetary
decision-making at the highest level to
the problems facing the country’s
museums. It also temporarily separated
the gallery from CONAC by a ‘strategic’
action that was perfectly legal yet imagin-
ative enough to dramatize the state of our

20. 86
de una ciudad
nes la habitan.
MUSEO SANTIAGO,
DE Santiago de Chile.
Tracing the history of the urban
community: model of the former residence
of the Count of the Conquest.
[Photo: Museo de Santiago.]
N w directions
Fernanda de Camargo-Moro in mnsenm orgmizutìon
B.A. and postgraduate degree in museology, M.A. It is certainly an enomous responsibility t o colonial times, which bequeathed to us
and Ph.D. in archaeology. Assistant Professor and discuss mzueum Organization in Latin Am- the essential medium of communication
subsequently holder of the Chair of Archaeology
in the Faculty of Museology of the Museu do
erica and the Caribbean in oize short article. of cognate languages, are still powerful
Homen, Rio de Janeiro, 1968-71. Associate Femanda de Camargo-Moro,who hm consid- factors of cohesion.
Professor of Anthropology at the Pontificia erabIeprofessìoolaal experience in her own roun- Our efforts are greatly inhibited,
Universidade Catolica of Rio de Janeiro, 1974. try, Brazil, and more than passing acquain- however, by the difficulties of inter-
Director of Cepi (Iconographic Research Centre), tance with variousprogrammes in otherparts national travel within the region. In most
1972-73, and Mouseion (Centre of ,Museological
Studies and Sciences of Man) from 1973. of the continent, stresses that the views she cases, we are dependent on the air services
Director of AMICOM-Mouseion seminars, Real expresses below are high4 personal and still linking capital to capital, which are usu-
Càbinete Portugues de Leitura, 1973-79. evolvìng, a is the entire process of museology ally very costly. Distances are enormous.
Supervisor of Museology at the Museum of in the region. Rio de Janeiro, for instance, is closer to
Images of the Unconscious from 1973. President
of the Rio de Janeiro Museums Foundation, Lisbon than to Mexico City. Overland
1979-80. At present Director-General of travel is easier on the Atlantic side, but
Museums in the State of Rio de Janeiro Volume XXV, No. 3 , of Museum, en- the problem of distance is compounded
(FUNARJ), President of the Council for the titled ‘The Role of Museums in Today’s by the curvature of the Brazilian coast
Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the City of
Latin America’, appeared too soon after and the indented coastline of the
Rio de Janeiro, Chief Curator of the
E. Klabin Rappaport Collection, Director of the the Santiago round table of 1972 to re- southern. zone. Transcontinental overland
ICOM-Brazil Museological Documentation flect the radically new approach the routes from the Atlantic to the Pacific are
Centre, President of the Brazilian Committee of museums in the region were to adopt in rare and in all cases time-consuming. And
ICOM and Member of the Executive Council of response to the ideas developed during sea travel, even via the Panama Canal,
ICOM 1981-83. Author of books and articles on
museology, archaeology and preservation.
that meeting. which is still in use, is extremely circu-
Has carried out several museological consultant The changes have taken time to ma- itous.
missions for Unesco. terialize. The geographical configuration These difficulties, combined with the
of Latin America, with the slender strip world economic crisis, have tended to
of Central America joining Mexico to hold up the spread and implementation
South America and the long expanse of of the new museological ideas. But now
the latter broken up by the barriers of the that ten years have elapsed, we can begin
1. Jamaica has embarked on a vigorous *
museum organization programme and is forging
Andes, the Amazon basin and the Pan- to take stock of the changes in Latin
strong l i n k with the African museum movement. tanal, restricts the scope for effective im- America and consider the extent to which
The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has already plementation of joint programmes. On the new approach has also had an in-
implemented an extensive museum renovation
and expansion programme initiated in 1976 with the other hand, our common heritage fluence in the Caribbean and created
Unesco’s support. and the pervasive Iberian influence since linkages with the continent.’

21. New directions in museum organization 87
Most of our museums were established by the community in their activities. This
in the nineteenth century in the image of was the key to survival.
European museums, generally those of The redefinition of the museum con-
the country wielding the greatest in- cept called for at Santiago implied a con-
fluence in the region at the time. comitant redefinition of our heritage and
Although the collections, generally trans- hence a change in the mentality of the
’
ferred and donated by ruling or govern- cultural élites of our countries, in many
ing families2 or assembled as a result of cases still steeped in the Europeanizing
scientific and artistic missions from concepts of the nineteenth century. In
Europe, were of a very high standard, the order to disseminate the new ideas, it was
underlying conception of the museums decided to set up a Latin American Asso-
was extremely partial. The collection and ciation of Museology (ALAM). The asso-
presermtion of local objects were entirely ciation was established at the beginning
neglected ; many of these objects were ex- of 1973 at an intensive and lively meet-
ported. and the remainder were displayed ing in Quito, but despite the enthusiasm
in the light of a foreign interpretation. of some of its members it never really got
There was no documentation of either off the ground. In the meanwhile, the
imported or exported collections. Local seeds of the new philosophy of muse-
material was ordered according to con- ums had found fertile soil and the first
ceptions that led inevitably to its identifi- fruits were beginning to appear.3
cation as natural history collections : the The creation of the National Museum
indigenous peoples and their cultures of Anthropology in Mexico City in 1964
were shown side by side with exotic flow- is considered by some as a turning-point MUSEU ” m o REINADE, de Janeiro.
P Rio
ers and animals. A further anomaly was in the museological movement in Latin Reaching out to the disabled: a deaf-mute
the exclusion of the cultures of Asia, Af- America. In our opinion, however, it was child being taught rhythm.
[Photo: O Edson Meirelles.]
rica and our own continent from the merely an isolated event whose implica-
rather insipid fine arts museums or their tions were more museographical than
discriminatory classification in terms of philosophical. Far be it from us to belittle
ethnography rather than art. the extraordinary achievement that the
Up to the end of the 1960s modern- Mexican museum represents or to ques-
ization work on our museums served. tion its undeniable beauty. It altered
purely decorative purposes. Changes were many preconceived ideas in the region.
made only in items of equipment, for in- Museums were no longer seen as musty
stance display cases and coloured panels. storehouses of crumbling relics rather ,
Although the essential link between than living memories, but became instead
museums and education was recognized, political instruments, sources of prestige
very little was done to turn this fact to and monuments to our indigenous ances-
account. Only a limited amount of re- tors, affording greater objectivity and
search was conducted, with no attempt at clarity of definition in the archaeological
interdisciplinarity. The notion of conser- rather than the ethnographical field. But
vation was non-existent, the only work for a better understanding of contempor-
carried out under this heading consisting ary Mexican culture as a whole, we must
of the restoration of paintings. Between turn to the magnificent Museo Nacional
1950 and 1960 the number of mu- de Historia in Chapultepec Castle.
seumsnational, state, municipal, pri- The National Museum of Anthro-
vate, encyclopylic and monographic pology, while attaining a very high stan- 2. For example, the Etruscan collections
-increased sybstantially, without basic dard of display, tends to lay undue em- brought over by Tereza Cristina, Empress of
organization /or structural conception. phasis on the monumental in an aesthetic Brazil, which are now in a natural history
museum, the National Museum of Rio de
i
They were ‘bsolete from the outset and context, and it does not enter into a dia- Janeiro.
devoid of ny prospect of development. logue with the population, least of all 3 . As evidence of the impact of the new ideas
Static in CO cept, designed primarily with with communities in the most deprived in various parts of the region, we may note, in
the first instance, the plans for the Archaeological
a view to el borate inaugural ceremonies, areas.4 Museum and Art Gallery of the Central Bank of
they rapidly ‘degenerated into a formless Ecuador, El Salvador’s Houses of Culture and
travelling exhibitions (1974), Brazil‘s proposals
conglomeratio’n of bric-à-brac. At the be- Towurds ‘museum on u for community ecomuseums and the Museum of
ginning of the 1970s, when all sectors Images of the Unconscious (1973-74), the
were faced with financial difficulties, the
humazz scule’ programmes of the Museum of Natural History
of Santiago de Chile (1973-74), the Casa del
museums, already struggling to make The idea of a museum on a more human Museo in Mexico (1973-74) and the
ends meet, were particularly hard hit. It scale that evolved in 1972 did not restructuring of museums launched by Trinidad
and Tobago in 1976.
was clear that they were not accomplish- succeed in preventing all the capitals of 4. This aim was to be fulfilled by the Casa del
ing their crucial mission of preserving the Latin America and its neighbours from Museo, a project brought about by the new ideas
cultural heritage ; something was miss- slavishly copying the famous Mexican which have permeated all of its programmes.
Mexico is also pursuing a successful policy of
ing-a firmer bond uniting them with museum without the slightest attempt at dialogue with the population through smaller
the population and stronger participation adaptation to national realities. Even to- museums.

22. 88 Fernanda de Camargo-Moro
MUSEO AMANO,Lima. Attaining and
preserving technical standards : a small,
privately owned museum of pre-Columbian
textiles.
[Photo: Museo Amano.]
A sustained concern to preserve both the
cultural and natural environment is
emerging : extramural activity to promote
understanding of agriculture carried out by
museums in the Rio de Janeiro network.
[Photo; SMU-FUNARJ.]

23. N w directions in museum
e organization 89
day it is quite common for the techno- the foundations of a modern and dynamic a recent programme and is already yield-
crats of our countries to return from a museology by inaugurating the Archaeo- ing favourable results. For technical sup-
visit to Mexico City utterly obsessed with logical Museum and Art Galleries of the port, it relies on the ICOM-Brazil
the idea of copying the National Museum Central Bank at the beginning of the Museological Documentation Centre.
of Anthropology, forgetting that each 1970s, a project commensurate with the An activity of major importance in the
country has its own scale of collections, human realities and aspirations in our re- region, which exerts a direct influence on
historical background and aspirations, gion. In addition to the Quito museum museum organization in Latin America,
and that its museums must take all these and gallery, the programme also provided is the UNDP-Unesco Regional Project
elements into account. It is by no means for decentralization through the estab- for the Cultural Heritage. This project,
easy to persuade these technocrats, trus- lishment of new museums in other parts which has its headquarters in Lima, has
tees and financial authorities to take an of the country, the organization of ar- been the motive force behind a series of
interest in simpler activities on a smaller chaeological missions and the develop- activities in the region. As well as
scale, just as it is not easy to secure sup- ment of research. promoting the organization of new
port for the preservation of museums and In Brazil an example of the extensive museums by offering encouragement and
their collections. It is and always will be form of organization is the system of technical support, it also helps to restruc-
easier in many parts of the world to ob- museums that is gradually being estab- ture old museums and has initiated in-
tain financing for costly prestige projects lished in the state of Rio de Janeiro by valuable training activities. (See article
of colossal dimensions than to meet the the General Directorate of Museums at- below, p. 94.)
more modest cost of viable projects con- tached to the Arts Foundation of the The seeds of a new museology have
ceived in human proportions. state. This Directorate, which is the suc- been sown and have already begun to
Nevertheless, the idea of a museum cessor to the State Museum Foundation, bear fruit, although a full harvest is yet to
tailored to community needs is gaining a body formerly responsible for a group of come. Our museums have shed their
'
ground and is gradually becoming a museums operating in airtight compart- gaolhouse image and are gradually assum-
characteristic feature of the region. De- ments completely divorced from the popu- ing the aspect of the agoras of ancient
spite all difficulties of communication and lation, is at present engaged in con- times.
exchange, the reaction has spread structing an integrated system, based
through the collective unconscious of the on two major criteria: conservation and [Tranrlatedfrom Portuguese]
region. A sustained concern to preserve dynamic development. In the field of
both the cultural and natural environ- conservation, the Museology Department
ment is also emerging. of the General Directorate lays down
Museum collections are now being technical standards governing inventory,
studied from a multidisciplinary point of conservation and maintenance in respect
view. Objects used in daily life are seen to of museums and their collections, con-
be worthy of preservation. Small trols the research and museographical
museums tracing the origins of urban and planning activities of the twelve mu-
rural communities have been set up, and seums or houses of culture and organizes
the principle of decentralization of collec- an extensive programme of temporary ex-
tions has begun to be observed. The prac- hibitions that travel to all parts of the
tice of despoiling a community of collec- state. In the field of dynamic develop-
tions providing information about its ment, the educational action programme
background and origins has been aban- acts as a stimulus to the programmes of
doned. Collections are increasingly in the twelve museological units, draws
keeping with the specific character of the their attention to municipalities that are
museum and the interests of the local still without museums and promotes in-
community. tegration of the programme with the
A crucial development was the elabor- local community. The programme is
ation of non-formal educational pro- headed by the Primeiro Reinade Museum
grammes, within which museums began in Rio de Janeiro, which carries out pilot
to be used as three-dimensionalinforma- projects and analyses their results for the
tion systems. A new spirit of creativity is benefit of the system. The impact of the
abroad, with inventiveness taking the programme is gradually being felt at all
place of luxury and grandeur in each new levels of society, in both urban and rural
museographical project. areas, thus forging links between the
An excellent case in point is Ecuador's museum and the various local com-
recently developed museological project, munities.
which is extensive in conception but Another series of extremely important
closely linked to the aspirations of the extensive projects based on community
population. Systematic studies in the field integration is being implemented by the
of anthropology have confirmed that the interesting Museu do Homem do Nord-
country's cultural history dates back 'at este in Recife (Pernambuco), the Dom
least 12,000 years, a conclusion that is Diogo de Souza Museum in the southern
borne out by very rich archaeological ma- part of the country and the State
terial. The Central Bank of Ecuador laid Museums Division in São Paulo. This is

24. pects o staff training
f
Felipe Lacouture
The Republic of Argentina has played a als could be classified into five categories
Born in Mexico in 1928. Studied architecture at pioneering role in the provision of sys- ranging from Grades A to E, and on the
the ,UniversidadNacional Autónoma of Mexico,
1947-52 ; also read archaeology and art history. tematic training for museum staff since assumption that each category after
École du Louvre, 1952-53. Taught architecture 1922, when a course to train experts in Grade B was capable of passing on to the
at the Universidad Iberoamericana at UNAM museum work was established in the next grade. In this way, through constant
1956-59. Lectured in aesthetics at post-secondary Faculty of Arts of the National Univer- practical experience and a certain amount
level, 1965-68. Professor in museology at the
Latin American Institute for the Conservation of
sity of Buenos Aires. This course con- of necessary additional study, the
Cultural Property, Mexico City, 1971-77. tinued to be given for thirty-seven years, museum worker may hope to become
Director of the Museo de Arte e Historia at and subsequently other institutions were better qualified and so obtain promotion
Ciudad Juarez, 1964-70. Head of the created for the same purpose, so that on the professional grading scale.
Department of Regional Museums, INAH, there are now in all four such institutions
197,0-73. Director of the Museo de San Carlos,
1973-77, and Head of the Department of in existence, offering seven different Two approaches to staf
Graphic Arts of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas courses of museology at various levels.
traìnìng
Artes, 1974-77. Director of the Museo Nacional Although efforts have been made in
de Historia, Mexico City, since 1977. Has many Latin American countries, or are What results are obtained by the Argen-
practised as an architect-restorer, has carried out now being made, to provide training on tinian and Mexican approaches, or sys-
mrious missions for Unesco and the OAS and has
attended numerous international meetings of a systematic basis, as in Argentina, there tems, in the context of staff training?
specialists. have also been attempts to set up on- Each gives rise to its own problems, in-
the-job training schemes, which are large- cluding that produced by the liberal ap-
ly autonomous. This is the case in Mex- proach of establishing a school and taking
ico, which took its first steps in the field on students who have no guarantee of
of museographical presentation in 1934 , work when they have finished their
establishing many of the features that are studies.
still characteristic of museum work in In Argentina the School of Museology
Mexico today with the foundation of the started giving courses for school-leavers
Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, in in 195 1. There are two courses, the first
which such outstanding artists as Julio to train museum auxiliary staff, which
Castellanos were involved and which, it lasts two years, and the second for a de-
might be added in passing, marked the gree in museology, which lasts an addi-
beginning of the ‘decorativîst’ bias in tional two years.
Mexican artistic activity. I should also The Higher Institute for Technical
like to mention the efforts made by the Training and Education in Museology
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e also trains people who have completed
Historia (INAH) to retain the emphasis their secondary studies to become
on the educational function of museum museum assistants or museologists, and
A photography theory class at the School exhibitions, which is so necessary for a offers an interesting one-year course for
of Conservation, Restoration and Museology public not familiar with the subject- qualified teachers that enables them to
at the National Centre of the same name, matter of anthropology. qualify as museum educators. In Latin
Bogotá, 1980.
[Photo: Colcultura.] However, these two tendencies within America, as elsewhere, a problem has al-
museography, which came to represent ways been posed by schoolteachers who,
real extremes, were finally fused in 1964 for all their knowledge, do not know
as a result of the work of a team of an- how to make appropriate and worthwhile
thropologists and architects led by a gen- use of museums in their teaching. (In
eral co-ordinator trained in history, art Mexico attempts have been made to solve
and architecture as well as anthropology. this problem by individual museums that
Many of the features that formed the have taken the initiative of providing
basis for the development of Mexican special courses for teachers so that they
museography thus evolved not in an aca- will learn about the museums themselves
demic context but in a strictly practical and thus be able to pass on the know-
way. ledge to their students.)
Later the need was felt for a hierarchi- In 1972 the Escuela Superior de Con-
cal structure and systematic organization, servación de Museos (Higher School for
and a grading commission was therefore Museum Conservation) under the aus-
set up within INAH so that different pices of the Argentinian Institute of
levels could be established for members of Museology established a three-year course
staff according to their knowledge and to provide technical and professional
experience. A series of definitions was training for those who have obtained
drawn up so that all museum profession- their secondary school-leaving certificate.

25. Aspects of staff training 91
Practical work on mural-painting restoration
in the Templo de Santa Clara, Bogotá, as
part of the course on restoration of movable
cultural property.
[Photo; Colcultura.]
. __
Mention should also be made of the
National Course of Museology, which
comes under the National Commission
z f
for Museums, Monuments and Historical
Sites, which provides courses lasting three
years at the post-secondary-school level to
train specialists for historical museums.
For a period, a somewhat similar kind of
training was provided by the Universidad
de Luján, but the course was sub-
sequently abolished.
In Mexico, the training programme
organized since 1968 by INAH’s
National School of Restoration in Chu-
rubusco to train graduates in restoration
work includes a systematic introductory
course of museology, considered essential
in view of the fact that professionals of
this type are mainly required to look after
the collections belonging to the INAH
museums.
Later on, in 1971, Mexico realized the
need to provide intensive courses, in view
of the increasing importance of museums students were just as likely to be sent
in the country and the urgent need to to the school as Argentinian museolo-
train personnel for them. This situation gists. It therefore became necessary to
coincided with the creation of a course of provide preparatory courses and at the
museographical training as a result of an same time to determine an appropriate
agreement with the Organization of stage or level of instruction, which could
American States (OAS). It was decided only be decided upon when the students’
that the course would last nine months, educational background was known.
offer one OAS fellowship for each As part of a generally liberal policy,
member country of the organization and which was not specifically directed
be held in the INAH School of Restor- towards the personnel of institutions,
ation. It was given for nine consecutive there was established in Mexico in 1979
years and trained a total of 2 5 5 people, of a master’s degree in museology within
whom approximately 40 were Mexican.’ the above-mentioned Churubusco school,
The course was divided into three which had by that time been renamed the
levels : a theoretical level approaching the School of Restoration and Museography.
study of museums through the social On the one hand, it was decided, in gen-
sciences, psychology, cultural anthro- eral terms, to adopt an integrated ap-
pology and pedagogy ; a second level cov- proach to the various techniques of
ering the organization of museum work, museum work, starting with the subjects
ranging from research and documenta- of collection, research, documentation,
tion to education and cultural activities, conservation and restoration, before go-
with emphasis on display techniques ; and ing on to display techniques, the use of
a third level where the student was free, explanatory material, education and the
on the basis of his own subject interests, diffusion of information and, finally, mar-
to choose a particular kind of practical ket research techniques designed to im-
work, which was then carried out in one prove communicationwith the museum’s
of the various national museums. public. On the other hand, attention was
However, this plan, which appeared so also given to the whole range of know-
well organized, encountered serious prob- ledge that can be presented in a museum,
lems in practice, as Churubusco was never including cosmology, geology, biology,
able to intervene directly in the selection ecology, palaeontology, palaeoanthro-
of students, who were mostly chosen by pology, archaeology, cultural anthro-
1. Unfortunately this course has now been
the OAS member states themselves, P0logy7 ethnography, history, temporarily suspended owing to administrative
with the result that secondary-school and art. All this clearly demonstrates the problems.-Ed.

26. 92 Felipe Lacouture
Working group during an interdisciplinary
retraining seminar carried out by the
SMU-FUNARJ in Rio de Janeiro.
[Photo: 0 Edson Meirelles.]
’Mexican desire to create an integrated ap-
proach to museology in which culture is
seen as a structured whole.
According to this approach, a museum
professional is regarded as a generalist
who co-ordinates a series of techniques
and sciences in order to carry out
museum work successfully. The master’s
degree was therefore organized so as to
give graduates in various subjects training
in museum work at the postgraduate
level. Up to the present time, two com-
plete courses have so far been given and a
third is about to begin.
Truinìng initiutiues elsewhere
The training courses organized in Bogotá
by the UNDP/Unesco Regional Project
for the Cultural Heritage in co-operation
with Colcultura are described separately
(see p. 94) ; suffice it to explain here
that the aim of the course for adminis-
trators was to provide them with the
necessary basic knowledge to develop in countries where all areas of life and knowledge of those basic techniques that
training courses within their own institu- work are influenced by liberal ideals. The are so essential in restoration and conser-
tions and thus, as fir as possible, create a situation in Ecuador is of great interest. vation work and that moreover provide
multiplier effect. The situation is so The School of Restoration, Antiquities basic knowledge about the intrinsic na-
serious that it is not possible to go and Museography set up by the Instituto ture of the objects themselves, which in
through the slow and lengthy process of Technológico Equinoccial has established the last analysis are the be-all and end-all
training personnel with high academic a specialized training course lasting three of the work of a museum.
qualifications, who would have to be re- years, which may be extended for a Ecuador has eighty museums, which
cruited on an unconditional basis, with a further two years in order to reach degree have, for the most part, been established
high probability that they would never in level. The particular interest of this as a result of private initiative in associ-
fact work in the museums in the area. To course lies in its attempt to provide joint ation with the recently founded National
succumb to the temptation to organize training in restoration work and museog- Institute for the Cultural Heritage and
admissions to schools of museology on a raphy. Extension of the course up to de- also with the Banco Central del Ecuador,
liberal basis and allow things to find their gree level, which has already been men- a state-controlled body that plays an
own level on the laisser$aire or laisser- tioned, will give the student the oppor- extremely active part in the country’s cul-
paser principle would, within the Latin tunity to choose in which of these fields tural life (see article by Sergio Durán Pi-
American context, represent an enormous he wishes to specialize. It must be admit- tarque, p. 84). The scene is set for the
waste of effort. This has been amply dem- ted that very often the generalist trend in further development of museology and
onstrated in other fields of activity, the training of museum professionals the recruitment of graduates of the
although it is difficult to understand this tends to provide them with insufficient school by existing institutions.

27. Aspects of staff training 93
The Directorate of Museums and been passed. The first unit deals with the 2. Fernanda de Camargo-Moro has pointed out
Monuments in Cuba has introduced humanizing function of small museums that ‘these courses are not sufl6cient to meet the
needs of the roughly 500 Brazilian museums
courses of museology, recently establish- in developing countries and with the spread throughout the country. For a time, Rio
ing for this purpose a School of techniques of gaining a wider public. It would systematically reserve a certain number of
Museology, where specially selected per- lasts a total of 375 lecture hours. The grants eachbut this practice was states of the
federation,
year for the various
dropped a few
sonnel are trained for work in museums. second unit concentrates on the social years ago. The detailed survey of Brazilian
They have been a powerful force in and humanistic function of fine-arts museums which was formerly conducted by the
Association of Members of ICOM-Brazil (Rio de
spreading awareness of the role of the museums and history museums in the de- Janeiro) and is now carried out by the
people in social and economic develop- veloping countries. It lasts 375 lecture ICOM-Brazil Museological Documentation
ment. The School of Museology provides hours, with additional hours for planned Centre, with its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro,
drew attention long ago to the need for training
training in six-month seminars on the or- reading. Finally, the third unit deals with facilities of this kind in other Brazilian
ganization of cultural activities, general science, industrial and technical museums universities in order to meet the growing demand
museology and museography, catalogu- and lasts 375 lecture hours, together with while training atmuseums. It is alsoquite sufficient
of the country’s
university level is
noted that
ing and classification, conservation and additional hours for planned reading. for the purposes of the small museums,
restoration work and Marxist philosophy. A possible change in government pol- postgraduate studies in a in neighbouring or in
museology for graduates
specialized field
After he has finished his studies, the icy could bring about changes in the disciplina are becoming more and more necessary
student of museology is guaranteed con- work of the school if, for example, the for museums with medium- or large-scale
tinued work in museums if his results are government were to encourage the attached to The Arts Foundation of the Museums
collections.
the
General Directorate of
state of
satisfactory, and thus the effort he has put development of science or industrial Rio de Janeiro is attempting to solve this
into his studies is hlly rewarded. museums. This would call for academic problem by organizing practical postgraduate
Finally, mention should be made of flexibility and an organic and functional in conjunction with periodic retrainingaim in so
training courses and
ICOM-Brazil. Its
seminars
the courses that exist in Brazil, including approach that would take political factors doing is to lay the groundwork for the
those given by the University of Rio de in the country into account. In addition, introduction as soon as possible of a master’s
degree in museology.’
Janeiro at the Centre of Human Sciences. it is expected that there will be wide- 3 . As Gretc Mostny has pointed out, ‘Most
These courses, which are undoubtedly the spread job opportunities for the gradu- important, we require trained personnel, capable
longest established in Brazil, are given in ates, both in museum work itself and also of applying the techniques. In many museums,
museography is still improvised, and conservation
the city of Rio de Janeiro itself since in teaching. is non-existent. However, one should be aware of
1932 and also in the city of Bahia. In Finally, it needs to be repeated that, in the dangers of importing models not suited to
the conditions of the country or the region.
both cases, they are at university level and the face of so-called liberal attitudes con- It has been the experience of several countries
are also open to those who are not already cerning admissions of courses, in Latin that sending personnel abroad often has negative
working in museums. The private univer- America and the Caribbean it is never or inapplicable to situationstendthe Third World,
results. The courses taught
in
to be inadequate
sity Estacio de Sa also provides courses at possible to disregard the basic specific and the costly equipment used for conservation,
university level for the training of needs of the institutions concerned, presentation and inventory is much too expensive
museum professionals.2 which in many cases are urgent and re- for these Countries to buy. Often, too, homehighly
trained personnel cannot find a job at
the
on
Courses are also organized in the city quire imaginative solutions.’ Nor can the coming back. This creates frustration and destroys
of São Paulo by the Foundation School of problem of guaranteeing work for those creativity. Many of these people look for jobs in
other arcas, and are lost for the museums.’ For
Sociology of São Paulo, which is linked who have attended such courses be ig- R. C. Ebanks (Jamaica) ‘the best way to achieve
to the university of the same city. This nored, on account of the human and an integral solution to this problem would be to
master’s course for postgraduate students economic d o r t that all this work repre- set up regional training and records centres,
where people educated within the cultural milieu
is divided into three interesting ‘units’, sents for economically weak, developing would organize training courses, wholly applicable
the second two of which can only be em- nations. to the cultural peculiarities of the region’.
barked upon when the preceding unit has [Translatedfrom Spanish]
Museology diploma students a t the Escuela
Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y
Museografia ‘Manuel del Castillo Negrete’ ,
Mexico City, with a model for an
exhibition project.
[Photo; Felipe Lacouture.]

28. 94
Participants in the Second Regional Course
for Museum Assistants engaged in practical
work on museological design at the
National Centre for Conservation,
Restoration and Museology, Santa Clara,
Bogotá, 1980.
[Photo: Sylvio Mutal.]
Sylvio Mutal
Chief Technical Adviser and Regional
Co-ordinator of the UNDP/Unesco Regional
Project for the Cultural Heritage, Lima, Peru.
Mnseology conrses
organized by UNDP, Unesco
One of the principal objectives of the 1977 in collaboration with the Italian-
UNDP/Unesco Regional Project for the Latin American Institute.
Cultural Heritage, which operates in Ar- At the meeting museologists, ar-
gentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colom- chitects, anthropologists, social scientists
bia, Chile, Panama, Peru and Venezuela, and educationists discussed problems of
is to disseminate information on various museology from the conceptual, technical
subjects relating to the conservation and and economic points of view. The
contemporary relevance of cultural prop- museum was defined as a place in which
erty as a factor in a multidimensional type the work of man and his relationship
of development. with the environment may be perceived.
As contributors to this issue have al- and it was aíKrmed that museums should
ready pointed out, most of the museums be part of the social and environmental
in the region are severely lacking in the context in which they operate.
Sergio Durán Pitarque (second from right), infrastructure and trained staff needed to As the city of Bogotá already had a
Administrative Director of the Museum of
the Central Bank of Ecuador, surrounded by ensure the proper conservation, restor- restoration centre, as well as other ap-
other museologists taking part in the First ation and presentation of their collec- propriate facilities, it was recommended,
Regional Course in Museology for Directors tions. in agreement with the Colombian
of Museums in Bogotá, 1979. In order to help fill the gap the Government, that regional training
[Photo: E. Tavera.] Colombian Cultural Institute (Colcul- courses in museology should be organized
tura) and the UNDP/Unesco Regional in Bogotá. To this end, the Government
Project for the Cultural Heritage decided of Colombia joined with Unesco and
to organize a series of regional courses. UNDP in a cultural development project,
These were inaugurated in Bogotá in which included a special museology com-
1979. ponent.
At the end of 1978 and beginning of
1979, Colcultura organized working
Background to the courses meetings with Unesco and UNDP which
At the invitation of Colcultura, the brought together national and interna-
UNDP/Unesco Regional Project for the tional experts from different ,continents,
Cultural Heritage organized at Bogotá an for the purpose of establishing the pro-
International Symposium on Museology gramme and content of the courses for
and the Cultural Heritage in November 1979-81. For the courses in 1979 and

29. Museology courses organized by UNDP, Unesco and Colcultura' 95
1980, Colcultura obtained additional The lecturers included Marta Arjona
funds from the Andrés Bello Convention. (Cuba), Luis Lumbreras (Peru), Jorge
The Italian-Latin American Institute Kliecer Ruiz (Colombia), Claude Pécquet
(IILA) in Rome also expressed its interest (France), Alfonso Castrillón (Peru), Fer-
and support by sending lecturers from nanda de Camargo-Moro (Brazil), Felipe
Europe. Lacouture (Mexico), Eduardo Terrazas
(Mexico), Eduardo Porta (Spain), Sebas-
First regìoizal courses i p z tián Romero (Colombia), Omar Cala-
brese (Italy), Angel Kalenberg (Uruguay),
museology-Bogotú, 1979
Danièle Giraudy (France), Lloyd Hezek-
A first regional course for museum direc- iah (United States), Regina Otero de Sa-
tors and assistants was organized from bogal (Colombia) and George Schröder
October to December 1979. It was at- (Netherlands).
tended by twenty-four directors and
twenty-four assistants from museums in Itzitial techmkd trainì~gcourse for museum
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, assistants. The purpose of this eight-week
Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and course (23 October-15 December 1979)
Venezuela. Central American participa- was to 'train staff for museum work, to CoNSERVAT1oN~
tion was arranged through the UNDP/ RESTORATION MUSEOLOGY, Clara,
AND Santa
provide general information on museol- Bogoti. General view of the painting
Unesco Regional Project for that region. ogy and to encourage the exchange of restorationworkshop.
The programme of the courses-in- experience. [photo: ~o~cu~tura.]^
tended for persons working in museums
of anthropology, archaeology, history and
art-was designed to take into account,
for the different areas and subjects, the
actual stages through which a cultural
object passes when it becomes part of a
museum collection : (a) cataloguing and
archives ; (b) conservation and prepar-
ation of specimens; (c) exhibition and
museography ; (d) communication and
social projection of the museum. These
areas were complemented by themes such
as the museum and culture and the his-
tory and concept of the museum. Special-
ists from museums in Latin America,
Europe and the United States gave the
courses.
Ref fiber c o m e for museiim directors. The
aims of this course were : (a) to deter-
mine the academic level and experience of
museum directors in Latin America, (b)
to discuss the most important problems
concerning museums in Latin America,
(c) to update knowledge by reporting on
developments throughout the world in
the field of museology, (d) to analyse and
discuss the present situation of museums
in Colombia, (e) to propagate the courses
throughout Latin America and the Carib-
bean and ( f ) to exchange experiences be-
tween different countries.
The course lasted two weeks, from
19 November to 1 December 1979.
Round tables and lectures were devoted
to topics such as museums and culture,
museum programming, museum plan-
ning and organization, museum admin-
istration, museums of the future, semiot-
ics applied to the museum, visual aids
and communication in the museum, chil-
dren and museums and museum security.

30. 96 Sylvio Muta1
Lectures and debates covered topics (France) ; and museological criteria, 1981 at the Santa Clara Centre. The
such as the concept and history of the Franca Helg (Italy). The co-ordinator of theme of the course was ‘Technical
museum, the administration of collec- the course was Alice Aguiar de Barros Training in Museum Conservation’. The
tions, the museum and education and Fontes (Brazil). principal aims of the course were : to pro-
museographic presentation. The lecturers At the suggestion of the participants, vide instruction on methods and tech-
included: Alfonso Castrillón (Peru), the course took the form of discussions niques of conserving museum collections
Grete Mostny (Chile), Jaime Camacho and round tables. The afternoons were set and buildings ; to impart basic knowledge
(Colombia), Amada Ojeda (Colombia), aside for visits to various museums in the on the composition of museum exhibits
Gaë1 de Guichen (ICCROM), Cecilia Al- city-the Museo del Oro, the National and the factors affecting their stability ; to
varez (Colombia), Guillermo Joiko Museum, the Modern Art Museum and teach the basic rules for cleaning, hand-
(Chile), Beatriz González (Colombia), the Archaeological Museum-which en- ling and storing exhibits ; to impart some
Regina Otero de Saboga1 (Colombia), abled participants to make a practical as- notions of didactics to enable participants
Emma de Vallejo (Colombia), Cecilia sessment of the theoretical criteria. to pass on the knowledge acquired.
Coronel (Colombia) and Eduardo Serrano This course was designed for conser-
(Colombia). The theoretical part of the Workshopfor technical assistants in museum. vators and curators, as well as technicians.
course was complemented by specialized The workshop for technical assistants was It was attended by twenty-seven fellow-
practical work carried out in various intended to provide the technical staff of ship-holders from Bolivia, Colombia,
museums in Bogotá. the museums in the region with basic Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and
training in the mounting of exhibitions. Venezuela.
Second Regional Course in It therefore covered the following sub- The lecturing staff for this course in-
jects : introduction to museology, pho- cluded : Agustin Espinoza, Felipe Lacou-
M u s e o l o p B o g o t Ú , 1980 tography, design, psychology, semiotics, ture and Rodolfo Vallin from Mexico;
This course was also held in Bogotá, at the conservation and aesthetic appreciation. Emma Araujo de Vallejo, Jaime Mon-
headquarters of the Santa Clara National Analysis and practical work were geared cada, Germán Téllez, Jaime Salcedo,
Centre for Conservation, Restoration and to giving the skills needed to improve Martha de Garay and Mireya Vallin from
Museology. The seminar for directors and their own museums as needed. Colombia and Fernando Jpiko from
administrators of museums on the plan- Museological theory was discussed by Chile.
ning, financing and organization of Alfonso Castrillón (Peru) and practical The subjects included : introduction to
museums was held from 6 to 17 October design by Jorge Guiterrez (Colombia) ; the cultural heritage ; museology ; super-
1980; the workshop for museum assist- Macarena Aguero (Chile) gave a lecture vision and security in museums ; conser-
ants and technicians on museographi- on defining the typical museum visitor’s vation of objects and monuments ; causes
‘cal presentation and explanation from profile. The photography course was of deterioration and methods of diag-
25 August to 17 October. The courses given by Antonio Castañeda (Colombia) nosis ; prevention and simple conserva-
were also supported by the Secretariat of and the course on graphic design applied tion ; conservation of buildings ; classifica-
the Andrés Bello Convention (SECAB). to museums by Claude Dieterich. Conser- tion and recording ; storage and packing ;
The courses, given by lecturers from vation was dealt with by Cecilia Alvarez, educational aspects.
Colombia and other Latin American Guillermo Joiko, Darío Rodriguez and
and European countries, were attended Martha de Garay, from the Santa Clara Activities for 1982 and 1983
by fellowshipholders from Argentina, National Centre for Conservation, Res-
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, toration and Museology. A programme of Under the auspices of the UNDP/Unesco
Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, lectures was arranged for the last two Regional Project and with the collabor-
Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. weeks, during which the architect Franca ation of ASEM and SECAB, a course was
Helg presented her projects and those of organized in Quito in January 1982 on
Seminar fir museum directors. This seminar the architect Franco Albini for the re- museums and educati0n.l Two others
focused on the planing, financing and or- modelling of ancient buildings ; Danièle will be held, in Caracas on the museum
ganization of museums. It was designed Giraudy, Head of the Children’s Depart- and the community and in Bogotá on
to cover a range of subjects useful for up- ment in the Georges Pompidou Centre in museology and conservation. For 1983, a
dating the knowledge of those in charge Paris, discussed aspects of education and course is planned in Brazil on the mu-
of the museums of the region so that, on the museum; Claude Pécquet, pro- seum as a centre for cultural communi-
returning to their countries, they might grammer for several French museums, ex- cation; other specialized events are sched-
put into practice the principles of modern plained the programming method used at uled in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
museology. The various themes and fields the Pompidou Centre and at other The UNDP/Unesco Regional Project
dealt with during the course were: legal museums throughout the world ; Felipe for the Cultural Heritage is also sponsor-
questions concerning the museum, Gus- Lacouture spoke on travelling exhibi- ing a study on ‘Diagnosis of Museum
tavo Palomino Gómez (Colombia) ;financ- tions, and Fernanda de Camargo-Moro Problems’ in all countries of the region, a
ing, Manuel Espinoza (Venezuela), and dealt .with general aspects of museology, similar study having already been carried
Sergio Durán Pitarque (Ecuador) ; fund- using examples from Brazil. out in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and
raising for museums, Maria Victoria Ro- Venezuela.
bayo (Colombia) ; programming, Claude T h i r d Regional Course in [Tramlated from Spanish]
Pécquet (France) ; concepts of museum
organization, Fernanda de Camargo-Moro
M z l s e o l o p B o g o t Ú , 1981
1. An artide on the subject in the Latin
(Brazil) and Felipe Lacouture (Mexico) ; The Third Regional Course in Museology American context will appear in a future issue of
children and museums, Danièle Giraudy was held from 17 August to 2 October Museum.

32. 98
Table o professsìonal trdiìnìng cozmes
f
Prepared by the Unesco-ICOM Documentation Centre
Country Institution in charge start, Admission Subjects Certificate or diploma
duration requirements
Argentina Instituto Argentino de 1972. Secondary-school 1. Museology ; history of Museum curator.
Museólogos. Escuela 3 years. diploma. civilization ; communications ;
Superior de Conservadores de natural sciences ; aesthetics;
Museos. museography.
Marcelo T. de Alvear 2084, 2 . Exhibition ; organization and
1122 Buenos Aires, administration ; conservation
Tel. : 83.9621. and restoration ; art history ;
history of Argentina;
archaeology.
3. Lighting; architecture ;
anthropology ; ethnography ;
applied arts ; pedagogy.
Escuela de hfuseología, 1959. Secondary-school 1. Introduction to museology ; Upon termination of the
Facultad de Ciencias de la 1st cycle : diploma. organization and first 2 -year cycle : museum
Información de la 2 years, administration ; general culture ; technical assistant ( a u d i d r
Universidad del Museo 2 nd cycle : French. técnico d museos). Upon
e
Social Argentino. 2 years. 2. Conservation and restoration ; termination of the 2nd
Av. Corrientes 1723, practical museography; French 2-year cycle: B.A. in
Buenos Aires. language and civilization. Museology (1ice”b en
3. History of the sciences ; museologíd).
sociology ; art history ;
pedagogy.
4. American history : art history ;
archaeology ; applied arts ;
museography.
Instituto Superior de 1968. Secondary-school 1.Technical assistant : 2 -year
Perfeccionamiento Técnico y diploma. course. Museology and
Docente en Bibliotecología y museography ; conservation and
Museología. Attached to restoration ; history of
Ministerio de la Educación civilization and of Argentina ;
de la Provincia de Buenos foreign languages ; museography
Aires. workshop.
Diagonal 74 entre Calles 5 y 2. Museologist : Requiring one
43, La Plata. year of additional studies
following the 2 -year technical
assistant course. Archaeology ;
general history and history of
art of America and Argentina;
applied arts ; natural sciences ;
museology ; foreign languages.
3. Educational personnel : 1-year
course. Pedagogics of
museology; natural sciences;
communication techniques;
prehistory and archaeology in
America ; folklore ; social
psychology ; history of art; the
cultural evolution of Argentina.
Curso Nacional de 1973. Secondary-school 1. Museology and museography ; Specialization in historical
hluseología, Comisión 3 years diploma. history ; sociology ; education ; museography.
Nacional de Museos, architecture ; administration.
Monumentos y Lugares 2 . Conservation workshop ;
Históricos. chemical and physical analysis ;
photography.
3 . Archaeology ; iconography ;
numismatics ; heraldry ; folklore ;
naval and aeronautic
terminology.
Bolivia Instituto Boliviano de 1978. Graduate of fine Conservation of easel paintings ; Certificate of attendance.
Cultura. Museo Colonial. 4 - 6 months. arts academy or murals; stone; wood.
Sponsored by the school. Painters,
UNDP/Unesco Regional sculptors.
Project for the Cultural
Heritage.
La Paz.
Brazil Escola de Belas Artes, 2 years. Student of fine Conservation of paintings.
Universidade Federal de arts school.
Bahia.

33. 99
Country Institution in charge Start, Admission Subjects Certificate or diploma
duration requirements
Universidade Federal da 1977. Diploma in a 4 courses including the following
Paraíba, CCT-DSH Campina 360 hours. field relative to subjects: museum history ;
Grande, Paraíba. Curso de museums. organization ; types of museums ;
museología. regional problems ; acquisition ;
cataloguing ; conservation and
restoration ; communications ;
exhibition.
AMICOM (Association of 1977. Certificate. General museology including Certificate.
Members of A four-week history, art history, natural
ICOM-BRAZIL). museology history, anthropology, science and
Avenida Ataulfo de Paiva seminar, twice technology ; administration and
No. 1079, Rio de Janeiro, per year. organization ; documentation ;
Tel. 294.19.46. research ; architecture and
equipment; exhibition ;
conservation ; education.
Curso de Museus 1932. Secondary school Museum history ; legislation ; B.A. in museology.
Universidade do Rio de 4 years. diploma ; administration and organization ;
Janeiro/Museology course of knowledge of registration and inventory ;
UNIRIO. two foreign architecture ; presentation ;
Rua Xavier Sigaud, languages. conservation.
No. 290, Rio de Janeiro.
General Direction for 2 years. Museology ; history ; art history ; Certificate.
Museums of the Rio de Advanced natural history ; conservation and
Janeiro State Foundation for university courses restoration ; anthropology.
the Arts (FUNARJ). and periodical Advanced university courses and
Avenida Portugal, No. 644, recycling periodical recycling seminars
CEP 22291, Rio de Janeiro, seminars organized with ICOM-Brazil.
Tel. 295.1996. organized with
ICOM-Brazil.
Escola Nacional de Belas 2 years. Student of fine Conservation of paintings. Theory
Artes, Universidade Federal arts school or and practice.
do Rio de Janeiro. eligible for
Rua Aranjo Porto Alegre, admission.
Rio de Janeiro GB ZC 2 1 .
Conservation Laboratory of 2 2 months Two years Conservation of archaeological Certificate.
die National Museum of (1,600 hours). university studies materials and paintings.
Fine Arts. in physics or
Av. Rio Branco 199, chemistry or
Rio de Janeiro GB ZC 2 1 . museum school
or fine arts
certificate,
Fundaçã0 Escola de University level. 3 specialization courses : Certificate of specialization
Sociologia e Política de São 1 . Small museums. lading towards a master’s
Paulo. Instituição 2 . Art and historical museums. degree.
complementar da 3. Museums of science and
Universidade de São Paulo. technology.
Rua General Jardim 5 2 2,
São Paulo CEP 01223, Tel.
256.46.73, 256.15.5 2.
Chile Ministerio de Educación 1968. Secondary-school Natural sciences ; knowledge of Certificate of preparator
Pública. 3 years diploma. materials ; conservation ; (upon completion of 2
Museo Nacional de Historia (24 hours a preparation; museology ; regional years). Certificate of
Natural. week). museums ; presentation ; museology (upon
Centro Nacional de documentation. completion of 3 years).
Museología.
Casilla 7187, Santiago de
Chile.
Museo de Bellas Artes, 1978. Graduate of fine Conservation of easel paintings ; Certificate of attendance.
Santiago de Chile. 4 - 6 months. arts academy or murals ; wood ; stone.
(Sponsored by the school. Painters,
UNDP/Unesco Regional sculptors.
Project for the Cultural Preference to
Heritage.) those working in
museums,
national services,
teachers.
Colombia Instituto Colombiano de 1978. Director of a Short seminars on specific subjects.
Cultura (Colcultura) and the Short course. museum A. Recycling course for museum
And& Bello Convention signatory to the directors : 2 weeks.
‘Escuela Regional de Andrés Bello Anthropology ; social
hluseología’ (organized on Convention or psychology ; education
the initiative of the participating in sciences ;museography ;
UNDP/Unesco Regional the regional organization and administration.
Project for the Cultural Unesco-UNDP B. Vocational training for
Heritage). project. technical personnel : 8 weeks.
Bogotá. University Documentation ; conservation ;
diploma. museography ; educational
techniques.

34. IO 0 Unesco-ICOM Documentation Centre
Country Institution in charge Start, Admission Subjects Certificate or diploma
duration requirements
Cuba Dirección de Museos y 1979. General museology and
Monumentos. Escuela de 6-month museography ; cataloguing and
Museologia. seminars. classification : conservation and
Havana. restoration ; Marxist philosophy.
Dominican Centro Taller Regional de 1979. Restoration techniques of graphic
Republic Restauración y ’ 30 days. Personnel of documents.
Microfilmación de archives and 1. Definition of cultural property.
Documentos para el Caribe y libraries of the 2. History of graphic documents.
Centroamérica. Dominican 3 . Preservation of graphic
Calle Modesto Díaz No. 2 , Republic and documents.
Santo Domingo, other Caribbean 4 . Restoration of graphic
Tel. 532.25 00/08/09. countries. documents.
5 . Deterioration of graphic
documents.
Ecuador Dirección del Patrimonio 1978. Graduate of fine Conservation of easel paintings ; Certificate of attendance.
Artístico Ecuatoriano. 4-6 months. arts academy or murals ; wood ; stone.
(Sponsored by the school. Painters,
UNDP/Unesco Regional sculptors.
Project foc the Cultural Preference to
Heritage.) those working
Convento San Agustín, in museums,
Quito. national services,
teachers.
Escuela de Restauración, 3 yas. Restoration and museography.
Antiguidades y Museografia,
Instituto Tecnológico
Equinocdal.
Honduras Instituto Hondureño de
Antropología e Historia.
Villa Roy, Tegucigalpa.
Mexico Universidad Iberoamericana. 1979. Teach students enrolled in
Avenida de las Torres, 2 hours per week humanities courses about the work
Mexico City. during two and role of museums in society.
academic
semesters.
Escuela Nacional de 1978-79. University Courses on acquisition ; research ; Master’s in museology
Conservación, Restauración diploma in a conservation ; presentation ; (maestro en mtrseologfa)
v Museografia ‘Manuel del subject related to circulation ; evaluation ;
castillo Gegrete’ museum cataloguing ; documentation ;
INAH-SEP. activities, such as restoration ; interpretation ;
Centro Churubusco, history, art education ; communication.
Ex-Convento de history,
Churubusco, Xicoténcatl archaeology,
y General Anaya, anthropology,
Coyoacán 21, D.F. architecture,
natural history,
design.
Museo Nacional de Historia. 1980. Courses intended to inform school
Bosque de Chapultepec, 8 sessions teachers how to make use of
Mexico City. resources offered by museums to
improve their courses on the
history of Mexico.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~
~ ~ ~ ~
Peru Instituto Nacional de 1977. Conservation of paintings and
Cultura. 4 months. Graduate of fine sculpture. Certificate.
Apt. 775 Colegio de Santo arts academy or
Domingo, Cuzco. school. Painters,
sculptors.
Preference to
those working in
museums,
national services,
teachers.
Museo Nacional de 1977. Archaeologists, Conservation of pre-Columbian Certificate of attendance.
Antropología y Arqueología. 1st part : conservators, textiles.
Plaza Bolívar, Pueblo libre, 12 weeks. textile artisans.
Lima 21. 2 nd part :
5 months.

35. IO1
OPINION
A hundred yeurs o solitade?
f
ICOM’S stake in the deidopment of niuseumm in MusEuai: Are the definitions behind the ity over excavation sites ? How many museum
Latiti Ainerica aiid the Caribbeangoes back to the policies themselves restrictive ? ethnographers have the satisfaction of co-ordi-
wry begimings of that organization. Its Tweyth nating or at least participating in inventory
Gmeral Coizfrmce in hfexico strengthened MONREAL: Indeed they are. The ‘heritage’ for and salvage campaigns? The right linkages
ICOhl ’s presence in the regioti, boosting its mem- example is still very largely understood in the still don’t exist, partly, of course, because
bership there, placing a heavier demand both o?~ its high-culture sense, which leaves room for there just aren’t enough posts for qualified
Parir-ba~edsecretariat aiid on the capacig of little but art treasures and archaeology. Living personnel.
Latiz America’s museologists themselves to work ethnic heritages are to a great extent forgotten Concerning conservation, of course the
together more effectively in the cause of the institu- because of the risk of political conflict they overriding problem is the lack of infrastruc-
tion t h q serve. might involve. Bolder definitions of the cul- ture such as laboratories and training courses.
Focusiag as it does on the Latin American and tural heritage must be defended and the very Many exceptions are indeed mentioned in this
Caribbean variaiits of a ugorldwide problem-the real interdependence between the man-made issue; what about those museums and coun-
stid itladequateplace 4 niuseunzs in contenporary and the natural environment given its right tries that are not so fortunate? This is a need
cultural development and cultural policy-this place in policy formulation and execution. that certainly cannot be met by the museums
issue is i?ia seme a maiiijkto for the whole inter- Similar problems arise in some African coun- or governments alone. Multilateral co-oper-
zatiotial museum movement. This is why Museum tries, where one rather partial version of ‘cul- ation, but in imaginatively conceived forms, is
sought the views of L i Monreal, whose direct
us tural identity’ as defined by the state is in the only solution. International organizations
contacts with museums hi Latia America have evident contradiction with the broader, real such as the OAS and Unesco need to reassess
nndt$hd in recent years. He has read through identity that is meaningful to millions of the conservation infrastructure requirements
the articles in this issue as a high4 conmitted citizens, particularly those outside the big subregion by subregion and renew their efforts
observer; he speakr not exlusively as ICOM’s Sec- cities. This brings us to the problem of the to create the necessary facilities.
retaty-GeneraJ but also as a colleagie and friend museum’s discourse, of the message it has to
of Latin Anlericati aiid Cadbeafi niuseuin PTO- get across to the people outside that urban MUSEUM: Surely not only material infrastruc-
fasionah. standard-an artificial ‘language’ in develop- ture but human resources as well ; the lack of
ing countries. The problem is as much one of trained staff has been underlined time and
MusEuaf : How would you assess the progress physical access as it is of explaining a collec- again.
made since the Santiago de Chile round table tion of objects in more than just scientific
of 1972, which for so many Latin American terms. This is crucial as much within the MONREAL: Well, a look at the training
colleagues has become the benchmark ? Latin American city as outside it. Museums facilities available will speak for itself (see
must be able-as they have begun to do in table, p. 9 8 ) . Adequate training in general
MONREAL: of all, we are simply not in a
First Cuba, in Brazil, on Carriacou Island-to re- museology is scarce, let alone more specialized
position to make a detailed assessment. As an spond to the needs of urban and rural ‘micro- training in education and cultural action. This
outside observer I would hesitate to make any communities’ that also want to preserve and is a deliberately chosen example, for to talk
sweeping statements. But I think we cannot reaffirm their own particular identity. Think about services in a community sense is idle
escape the fact that progress has been slow. of Macondo in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Cierz speculation if you do not have people who
Conceptually, little fresh ground has been aíios de soledad3 as the prototype of such a know how to do it. But there are other areas :
broken since Santiago. New ideas have been Latin American micro-community. All the museum programming and architecture
scarce, and the implementation of the most world‘s Macondos need their museums ! (paradoxically, the region has produced some
forward-looking intentions has at best been of the best museum architects!) exhibit de-
uneven. The great revolutionary museums of MUSEUM: How well are the basic museum re- sign and display techniques. Certainly a coun-
Latin America date from the 1960s ; despite sponsibilities being shouldered-collection try such as Mexico has excellent professional
the defects some people are now inclined to and conservation for instance ? training programmes, as just mentioned by
find in it, the Museo Nacional de Antropo- Felipe Lacouture. There are also the courses at
logía in Mexico City is still an avant-garde MONREAL: Well, to begin with there is little Bogotá. But all together these are still drops
museum. Aloisio Magalhaes has talked quite evidence of a collection policy at local level in the ocean.... Even more serious is the lack
rightly of ‘everything museums, linked to the that respects the significance of, say, a ‘family’ of employment. Argentina, for example, has
rural environment’,’ but there have been few heritage in the small community. At national four schools of museology ; they turn out per-
of these. The basic cause lies not, I feel, in level only a few states have defined a sys- haps one hundred trained people every year,
some inadequacy of the region’s museologists tematic approach to the building up of collec- but there cannot be more than ten posts to be
but in the lack of professional motivation, a tions, based on an understanding of the total N e d per annum! It isn’t a question of creat-
crucial point mentioned by Roderick Ebanks.l heritage of the country concerned. Why ? ing museums merely to absorb the unem-
Museum people have simply not been given Both the lack of a national plan in this respect ployed; rather, as Cuba has done, the right
the status they deserve, not even equivalent to and the lack of resources are obvious factors. specialists need to be trained for the right
that of the teacher or the research worker. For the same reasons museum professionals slots. The continent’s museums must surely
This is just one of the most perceptible, at still have little scope in the protection of the be about 80 per cent understaffed ! The ratio
individual level, of the structural problems heritage extra muros, in combating illicit
mentioned in the introductory article, which traffic, for example. How many directors of 1. seep. so
arise from the fact that museums are neglected archaeological museums in Latin American 2. seep. 81.
3. Published in English as A Huzdred Years of
in the formulation of cultural policies, in the countries are given the chance to sit on Solitude.
management of cultural resources and in the government committees that screen the ex- 4. See article on illicit tr&c by R. Torres de
national definitions of cultural needs. port of cultural property, or have any author- h Ú z , p. 134.

36. I02 Luis Monreal
of professional posts to collections (number of modest experiment involving the conversion
objects) or square metres of exhibition space into museums of several old buildings in
is extremely low indeed. Quito. Excellent, but how many gestures or
experiments can you expect? As already ar-
MUSEUM posts because of limited funds,
: Few gued, it is the state that must be made to
no doubt. The examples given in the artikle realize the need to give more to museums, to
on financing plus other cases of almost ‘entre- allocate those funds directly or at least in such
preneurial’ initiative in launching museums a way that gives the institution the power of
would perhaps justify optimism. decision and financial autonomy that are es-
sential if it is to innovate and ramify.J This is
MONREAL: ICOM is now completing a study far from being an impossible challenge; there
on the financing of museums, prepared for the is a great potential of goodwill-political, ad-
International Fund for the Promotion of Cul- ministrative, entrepreneurial-that remains to
ture. W e see that in Latin America, as be tapped. International organizations must
throughout the developing world, financial be associated with this effort. Bodies such as
support for museums is and can only be the OAS are beginning to build museum sup-
mainly governmental. Those budget ceilings port programmes. The World Bank on the
are almost impossible to budge. Private in- other hand is proving slow to commit itself.
vestment is still only piecemeal. In Ecuador Unesco’s resources of pre-financing, stimula-
CARRIACOU HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM, the artist Oswaldo Guayasamin is creating a tion and incitement have not yet been fully
Carriacou, Grenada. A locally made new museum on the basis of his own personal mobilized. And there are other avenues that
‘show-case’ for donated objects. archaeological collection, and the Fundación the region’s museologists seem largely to ig-
[Photo: Carriacou Historial Society.] Hallo is conducting a fascinating although nore-bilateral funding of fellowships and
other training activities, costly but with an
enormous mhtiplier deCr, ;hat could be
provided by such organizations as SIDA in
Sweden and similar state-supported develop-
ment agencies in Canada, France, the Federal
Republic of Germany, the United States of
America and in many other industrialized
countries. Finally, lest I be taxed with having
a ‘neo-colonialist’ bias, what about the richer
Latin American countries themselves ? Can
they not also be brought to commit them-
selves to creating a museum support structure
or network for the region ?
A single example is sufficient to prove
that the situation is dramatic and has to be
urgently changed. Peru, for instance, has
over fifty thousand identified archaeological
sites-this is just the tip of the iceberg-and
only thirty-six museums (national, provincial,
local), with a professional staff that can be
evaluated at perhaps no more than 150 per-
sons. Millions of objects in the ground are
exposed to the greed of huaqueros-archaelog-
ical looters-and to uncontrolled land use for
agricultural or other purposes : industrial,
public works and tourism. The living heritage
too is threatehed by imported technologies
and mass-produced products, that quickly-
and irreversibly-alter traditional life-styles
and environment. The disproportion between
the heritage that has to be urgently saved and
the human, technical and financial means
made available for its preservation is stagger-
ing. Every day, every minute, a significant part
of the zuorld’s heritage disappears forever.
5 . See the article on financing, p. 83.

37. ALBUM
Rock urt throughout
Rock paintings or carvings are found
throughout the American continent, the continent
through to 5,000 years ago. A farmers’
art emerges around 3000-2000 B.P.
from Alaska to Patagonia. The areas in Some paintings and carvings exist in
which examples of it have not been Argentina, from the far north to Pata-
found either lack suitable f o r m a t i o n s gonia. As in Brazil, human and animal
caves, shelters, outcrops-or have not yet figures are found alongside geometrical
been prospected. figures, called ‘signs’ in the specialized
Some regions have long been famous literature. Some authors in recent times
for their outstanding rock-art sites. Re- have attempted, without any really new
cent archaeological research has proved scientific grounds, to group the old styles
that such art is much more widespread in three stagesarchaic, intermediate,
than was first believed. Some of the newly late. The first stage would be dated about Niède Guidon
discovered sites are indeed much more 9000 B.P., the others spaced out in time
important than the already well-known (some paintings represent the Spanish in- Born at Jau in São Paulo State, Brazil. Degree in
ones. vaders). natiml history, zoology, biology and physics at
the University of São Paulo. Studied prehistory at
Owing to the disparity of the means In Chile the same types of figure are
the Sorbonne, 1961. Commenced research for the
employed, the differences between re- found, but geometrical engravings pre- CNRS under the direction of A. Laming
search teams, the fact that in some re- dominate. No comprehensive classifica- Emperaire of the Musée de l’Homme, 1966.
gions research has been conducted solely tion or certain dating has been proposed Excavations in Brazil from 1970 onwards,
by amateurs, knowledge of American by researchers as yet. In Peru, on the specializing in rock art. Doctorate (thesis on
Brazilian rock paintings) in 1975. Assistant
rock art is at present not very coherent other hand, excavations carried out in a Professor at the École des Hautes Ëtudes en
and, above all, differs greatly from one painted cave led to the obtaining of a Sciences Sociales, Paris, from 1976. Chief
country or zone to another. date around 9500 B.P., but there is no archaeologist on the Franco-Brazilian Piaui Project
obvious link between the strata dated and since 1976. Research assessor at the Federal
University of Piaui at Teresina since 1978.
the paintings, which represent armed
The kmwledge uvailuble men and Camelidue. These motifs occur
Unesco consultant for the Salto Grande
(Uruguay) archaeological salvage project.
The geology and the geomorphology of most frequently in paintings ; the engrav-
the vast South American continent are ings are often geometrical. In the equa-
most varied, for it extends from 1 2 O N. torial forest of Colombia, painted surfaces
to 57’ S. Very wide in the north and are to be seen on huge isolated rocks. The
narrow in the south, it has a great many subjects are zoomorphic, anthropomor-
climates and biotopes owing to its physi- phic and geometrical. Paintings are to be
cal features, ranging from zones situated found on the Colombian/Venezuelan
at sea-level to the snowy peaks of the An- border, and there are many engravings in
dean Cordillera. This variety is reflected in Venezuela. In Bolivia the paintings rep-
the cultures and hence in the rock art. resent llamas and felines. They seem to
Research in Brazil has so far yielded date back to between 3200 and 1300 B.P.
the earliest dates for American prehistoric In Uruguay engravings are more numer-
paintings (17000-14000 B.P).’ With the ous, but there are also a few paintings
setting up of a number of university with geometrical motifs. In the humid
centres for research in prehistory our regions of Guyana geometrical engrav-
knowledge of the rock art in this country ings clearly predominate. Anthropomor-
has evolved rapidly, especially since the phic or zoomorphic motifs also appear in
end of the 1960s. Several research proj- paintings.
ects are under way. Their object is to re-
constitute the total cultural contexts of The rock-urt herituge und
these paintings or engravings. The most
important projects concern the states of
its importance
Goiás, Minas Gerais and Piaui. In the Prehistoric rock art is not to be judged or
latter state it was possible to connect the analysed on the basis of criteria specific to
rock art with hunting populations : pieces the history of art. Here we use the word
of wall with red ochre lines were dated ‘art’ in its original sense derived from the
1. B.P. stands for ‘before present’, the dating
back 17,000 years, and the evolution of Latin ars, practical skill in malung reference prehistorians now use in preference to
these hunters and their art was followed something in accordance with certain the Chrisiian (or any other) era. .*

38. 1 o4 Niède Guidon
Toca da Extrema II cave, Brazil-human Toca da Entrada do Pajau cave,
figures and cervidae. The rock is damaged Brazil-human figures around a tree with
by termite streaks. cervidae; the sandstone surface is flaking.
[Photo: Niède Guidon.] [Photo: NiPde Guidon.]
methods and processes. Rock art is part of one is a special case with a Werent con- For instance, the farmers light fires to
the rare evidence of the spiritual life of figuration. We cannot be content with clear the land for cultivation and also to
prehistoric man and an invaluable source studying a few sites and extrapolating get rid of spiders, scorpions and snakes.
of data in attempting to reconstitute his from them to the others, a procedure that This has caused the destruction of a
daily life? would lead to largely erroneous conclu- number of painted sites in Brazil.
Take, for example, the Nordeste tradi- sions. The building of roads is also a major
tion in Brazil. The paintings represent cause of destruction. The felling of trees
scenes depicting zoomorphic, anthro- Whut hngers threuten the in front of certain shelters leads to an in-
pomorphic and geometrical figures. The crease in sunlight, which hastens the
subjects of these scenes are fairly clear and
rock-art sites o Sozlth Ainericu?
f process.
can be connected with ceremonies, Various kinds of threat exist, some of Erosion due to water, wind and the
dances, sexual relations, childbearing, which are purely natural while others are presence of animals, the chemical action
hunting. So it is possible to direct re- connected with the deliberate or unwit- of elements of the rock or salts dissolved
search efforts towards the interpretation ting destructive action of man. Since the in the runoff, are also destructive agents.
of the scenes. W e can show that these nineteenth century, in settled regions In Brazil a careful study of the rock sur-
hunters did not have the bow, that they such as Lagoa Santa in the state of Minas face revealed the formation of crystals a
hunted jaguars with slings and javelins Gerais in Brazil, nearly all the sites have few millimetres below the paint. These
and that armadillos were clubbed. been destroyed, disturbed or partially crystals cause the flaking of the rock and
We can doubtless also apply to certain damaged. The discovery of sites in for- hence the disappearance of its surface.
prehistoric paintings or engravings in merly isolated regions, preserved from in- Studies on increases in the density of
America adjectives implying an appreci- dustrial expansion and lacking roads, to- rocks and fragments of rock surface that
ation based on our artistic frames of refer- day sounds their death knell. In the re- have fallen off in archaeological sites, to-
ence-outlines with a care for detail, gion of São Raimundo Nonato in Brazil, gether with studies on the evolution of
simplicity, purity of line, exuberance in for instance, ten years after the discovery the climate, may enable us to ascertain
the treatment of figures, creativeness, of painted shelters and three years after whether there is a correlation between
unusual movement, expressiveness. ' the building of asphalted roads, no pro- this factor and the natural destruction of
Then again, there is an aspect not to tective measures having been taken be- the rock surfaces.
be overlooked, the prosperity of the re- forehand, 50 per cent and more of the It is also important to' emphasize
gion. Rock art is often present in very paintings had been destroyed on the read- another danger. Research, excavations
poor districts. A typical example is the ily accessible sites visited by sightseers and and surveys of rock-art sites are often car-
Archaeological Park of the region of São casual tourists, who broke the rock to ob- ried out by amateurs or persons who are
Raimundo Nonato in the south-east of tain fragments of the painted surface as not properly qualified researchers. At
the state of Piaui in Brazil. This semi-arid souvenirs. The sandstone of which these every stage of research errors resulting
zone of the sert20 is one of the most dis- shelters are made crumbles and disinte- from inadequate mastery of methods and
advantaged regions in the world. The grates into sand. The very rare cases of poor basic training are frequent. Data are
number of painted sites, their beauty and figures painted on pebbles have also been not reliable, conclusions are hasty and
diversity together with the charm of the largely destroyed, for it is possible to de- without scientific grounds. The paintings
landscapes, are a source of earnings on tach the pebble from the puddingstone are damaged by crude procedures: a
which a tourist complex, carefully and get away with the booty.
planned and controlled by the authorities Besides this destruction by looters,
2. As described by Emmanuel Anati in his
and the research bodies, could thrive. there is the involuntary destruction re- article 'The Origins of Art', in M m z m , Vol.
All these sites must be preserved. Each sulting from local practices or customs. =III, NO. 4, 1981, pp. 200-210.

39. I05
number of so-called researchers wet the ments and research centres, and univer- becomes apparent once it is realized that
paintings when making surveys or photo- sities entrusted with the training of young rock art cannot be studied on its own. It
graphs. Engravings are soiled with chalk, researchers. is not just the rock surfaces that should
which eats into the rock. Badly con- International bodies and governments be researched and protected but the entire
- _
ducted archaeological excavations mean might convene specialists to advise them archaeological context, the environment
data for ever lost. It is important and ur- with a view to the setting up of the legal and the interaction between that environ-
gent to consider the destructive action of and administrative structures for the pro- ment and man-not in prehistoric times
these researchers and to forestall it by es- tection of these sites. The establishment alone but from the time human settle-
tablishing university courses for the train- of national parks is one museological op- ment began in the region up to the pres-
ing of local teams of qualified people to tion available so as to ensure the protec- ent. This is the only reliable means of
carry out complete studies in these tion of this heritage and control its establishing the age of the art, the way in
archaeological zones. exploitation for the purposes of tour- which it has stood up to the action of
ism. Research centres-including mu- man, the hastening of the process of de-
seums-and universities should establish struction as a result of population in-
Steps to be taker2 standards to be met by research teams
. .
crease, economic change and advances in
In view of the importance of this heritage before being authorized to carry out their technology. The safeguarding of this
and the dangers that we have just men- work. Such requirements should be heritage is a specific and complex task,
tioned, it is necessary to take certain steps worked out by a group of specialists in which should be undertaken as quickly as
urgently. This responsibility concerns in- this field. possible.
ternational organizations, national govern- The role of the continent’s museums [Trandatedf T 0 . z French]
José Balza
Born in the Orinoco Delta, Venezuela. A novelist
and essayist, he calls all his works ‘exercises’, thus
The GuZerh making unexpected connections between fiction
and the essay. He is the author of the following
novels: Afarzo ur2terior (1965) ; Largo (1968) ;
Arte NucionuZ, curucus Satecientas palmeras pìuiztaaàs mi eì mismo lugar
(1974) and ‘D’ (1977). He has also published
several volumes of short stories, including
Ejercicios vzarativos (1967) and Ordezes (1970), as
The ending in 1936 of a long period of Creation o f a new national well as a number of essays. His unpublished
dictatorship prompted Venezuela to es- works include a book of short stories entitled Un
tablish its first museum: the Museo de rostro ubsolutanzente, the novel Percusihz, and two
Bellas Artes, created by Carlos Raúl Vil- The admirable pioneering spirit and en- books of essays : one on the painter Armando
laneuva in Caracas. thusiasm of the former Museo de Bellas Reverón and the other on the musician Antonio
Esttvez.
It is well known that Venezuelan Artes accomplished vitally important
visual art is outstanding for its con- work in the country for many decades.
tinuity, coherence and maturity. The None the less, various factors-such as
visual, which among us seems mys- the emergence of Venezuelan-born inter-
teriously to have acquired a highly orig- national figures and major innovators, the
inal personality, displays in the plastic arts appearance of well-defined movements
a remarkable technical and conceptual and trends in the plastic arts and the need
unity that has not yet crystallized in other to reconsider the history of Venezuelan
disciplines. art (both since Columbus and long before
The Museo de Bellas Artes was thus a the discovery of America) made it necess-
first attempt to provide Venezuelan art ary and possible to pass a decree in 1974
with its own show-case. The fact remains establishing the Galería de Arte Nacional,
that, owing partly to the novelty of the inaugurated in 1976. The prime reason
experiment and partly to the natural reac- for the founding of this museum was the
tion of uncertainty that new movements absolute need to put the Venezuelan
in art inspire, it preferred to make its people in contact with the work of their
space available to recognized Venezuelan own artists.
masters and to well-established interna- As the outstanding Venezuelan poet
tional works that happened to come the José Antonio Ramos Sucre so aptly put
city’s way. Although in time the museum it, both ‘law and art are means of trans-
succeeded in becoming more flexible and forming reality’. By interpreting, reflect-
included new generations of artists in its ing or modifying reality art is able to rep-
collection, its capacity for advertising resent both the appearance of things and GALEHA ARTENACIONAL,
DE Caracas. Main
entrance to the building, constructed by the
Venezuelan creativity did not go beyond their content. The Venezuelan public, architect Carlos Raúl Villaneuva between
the invariably temporary exhibiting of however, has lacked the opportunity 1936 and 1938.
the works of individuals or groups. (apart from the temporary exhibitions ar- [Photo: GAN]

40. I 06 José Balza
The annual evaluation and planrhg seminar On the first Sunday of each month the
at Pozo de Rosas, which is attended by all Galería organizes concerts, poetry-readings
the gallery staff. Here decisions on planning, or plays as a way of integrating different
organization and activities concerning the forms of artistic expression. Performing here
community are taken. is the folk group ‘Con Venezuela’.
[Photo: Humberto Febres.] [Photo: Humberto Febres.]
ranged by the Museo de Bellas Artes and whereby each activity (mounting an exhi- out long-term evaluation, analysis and
the occasional exhibition of interest in bition, for example) is based on team- planning for the museum. Over a period
private galleries) to evaluate this trans- work and involves the whole staff. Thus of three days the staff of the gallery make
formation or reflection. For hundreds of instead of a possibly excessive degree of an exhaustive study of their work during
years, private collectors and official insti- specialization in each stage or movement the year, amend or reaffirm the policies
tutions, by keeping works of art hidden of Venezuelan art, its staff members have being followed and decide on plans for
away, have removed them from the epoch an overall knowledge of artistic develop- the following period.
in which they were created and thus ment in the country. This new approach, These three devices provide a human
stunted the growth of knowledge of such which in no way implies superficiality, is and organizational structure for monitor-
works. If to this we add damage, loss and perfectly suited to our circumstances, to ing the continuous development of the
sales to foreign collectors, it is clear that the lack of specialist personnel in museo- gallery. It is perhaps this integrated ap-
this essential record of our development logical work and to the need to establish proach that is the key to the organization
as a people has suffered considerable a solid body of staff who will bring co- of the institution and, of course, to the
depredations. hesion to scattered individual actions in working habits that have given the gal-
In the five years of its existence, the these fields. lery a completely original character.
Galería de Arte Nacional has launched it- The continuous and effective channels
self with passion, but also with care and of communication offered by the staff
judgement, into the task of studying the
A three-cornered ?nethodology meetings (at their various levels) have
whole course of Venezuelan art, in an at- These activities are effectively carried out made possible great flexibility, in which
tempt to identify its constant features, its through the operation of three special both human relations and the objectives
variations, its origins and evolution, its devices. In the first place, there are of work are handled with a strong sense
great masters and its general movements. the interdepartmental meetings, during of responsibility and in a frank and com-
In this task, meticulously planned year by which problems are analysed and the radely atmosphere. Thus, the functioning
year, newspaper reports, autobiographical initial outlines of future plans emerge. of the gallery itself constitutes an orig-
writings and critical works have been These small committee meetings take inal social experiment, a form of collec-
drawn upon in a search for a global ap- place as often as circumstances require. In tive art.
proach to Venezuelan art. To this must the second place, there are the consulta- In this museum the task of transform-
be added the attractive presentation of tive councils, which are held weekly and ing reality, which the poet Ramos Sucre
the works, the informative guides pro- attended by a representative from each conceives to be the aim of beauty, goes
duced, the large-scale publicity ac- department and from each unit. Here a beyond the isolated function of the work
tivities-all designed to promote the re- wide-ranging agenda drawn up in the in- of art itself or the originality sought;by
velation of the great fresco of art terdepartmental meetings (and to which the artist, and has become a sacred mis-
throughout our history. immediate problems may be added) draws sion linking the gallery with the people
All these promotional activities, upon the different approaches and views (and vice versa) and forming a permanent
however, whether they are welcomed or of the staff as a whole. As a result of these point of contact between the greatest
viewed with suspicion, are of course but meetings, the day-to-day’ operations of possible number of human individuals.
the tip of a huge iceberg, concealing be- the gallery are infused with new life and
neath the surface the patient work carried vigour. Finally, mention should be made [Trdmhtedfrom Spanish]
from out from day to day by the gallery’s of the annual seminars held outside Ca- The interior gardens provide a background
staff. An important feature of its func- racas in Pozo de Rosas. These have be- for sculptures by Venezuelan artists.
tioning is its departmental organization, come the keystone in the task of carrying [Photo: Humberto Febres.] D

41. The Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas 107
Galería de Arte Nacional its wide range of functions, it is, in effect,
the museum of the history of Venezuelan The gallery’s Educational Department
facts and figures provides guided visits for school parties,
art. foreign visitors or any organization that
Adress: Venezuelan art is understood as in- requests them.
Plaza Morelos, Los Caobos, Caracas, cluding all those works of the visual and [Photo: Humbert0 Febres.]
Venezuela plastic arts created by native and adopted
Apartado Postal 6729 P. O. Box Venezuelans, both within the country
Caracas 101, Venezuela and abroad, and including painting,
drawing, graphic work, designs, photog-
Date o found&n2 :
f raphy, textiles, ceramics, experimental art
6 April 1 9 7 6 and popular art, from early indigenous art
up to the present day. It also includes the
Collections: work of foreign artists of any period
T h e visual arts of Venezuela from which concerns aspects of Venezuelan
the pre-Hispanic period until the life.
present day. The Galería was established by Resolu-
tion No. 105 of the Instituto Nacional
Number of i e s in the collection:
tm de Cultura y Bellas Artes (National Insti-
4,700 works (drawings, paintings, tute for Culture and the Fine Arts) (IN-
sculptures, works of graphic art, CIBA) on 1 October 1974 and was
metalwork, photographs, etc.). brought into being on 6 April 1976 by
the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (Na-
Staf : tional Cultural Council) (CONAC) , Generul objectives
Manuel Espinoza, Director under whose auspices it operates and
Francisco D’Antonio, General whose general cultural policy approach it Raearch: to establish the foundations for
Assistant-Director follows. systematic, methodical and continuous
Belén Rojas, Technical The Galería has legal possession of its research on Venezuelan art of all periods
Assistant- Director land and property and is autonomous in as a constant process, employing the
Adriana de Briceño, Administrative planning and administration. It works widest possible varieties of approach,
Assistant- Director closely with the Museo de Bellas Artes analysis and interpretation. To establish
and other institutions in the country in itself as the centre for the deposit, organi-
order to promote Venezuelan art abroad zation and dissemination of documentary
Objectives und fields of activity
and it participates in any action at the information on Venezuelan art, through
The Galería de Arte Nacional is the lead- international level that is likely to in- the National Information and Documen-
ing state museum. It is devoted specifi- crease people’s appreciation of the work tation Centre on the Plastic Arts in
cally to Venezuelan plastic arts of all of Venezuelan artists. Venezuela.
periods, and its tasks include the acquisi- On account of its specific role, its ac-
tion and preservation of works of art, car- tivities and its links with the other Edtlcatioz: to assist in the overall educa-
rying out research, spreading information museums in the country, the Galería acts tion of the individual, as a member of a
about Venezuelan art and making people as the main advisory centre in the plan- community which is in the process of
aware of its importance, and also encour- ning, organization and implementation achieving real cultural identity. To do
aging activity in this field. On account of of a national system of museum services. this by contributing to the development
of his creative potential and providing as-
sistance so as to create awareness of the
importance of common action and dem-
ocratic participation in the work of so-
ciety. To act as an essential educational
tool on behalf of lifelong education and
the active integration of different forms
of cultural expression.
Canservatioii and ratoration : to conserve
the national artistic heritage by means of
programmes to prevent the damage, de-
struction, loss or deterioration of artistic
property and also to help to increase
the understanding, appreciation and safe-
guarding of the national and internation-
al cultural heritage, thereby contributing
to the formation of a feeling of mutual
understanding and universal solidarity.

42. I08 Tosé Balza
The exhibition Doce maestros (Twelve
Masters), which was part of the
First Biennial Exhibition of the Visual
Arts, 1981.
[Photo: Humbert0 Febres.]
Collection and organization o f works o f art: ing in this field in developing a system to Adnzinistratioz : Administration Division,
to increase the nation’s artistic heritage forecast and maintain staffing levels and Manpower Unit, Public Relations, Bud-
through the collection and acquisition of to train managerial, technical, administra- get Unit, General Services : Supervision
works of art and through the develop- tive and general staff for museum work. and Information.
ment of programmes and initiatives to
encourage the donation of such works. Museam services: to act as the basic nu- Technical Section :Technical Division, De-
To establish contacts and joint pro- cleus for the promotion and development partment of Planning and Display, Ex-
grammes at the national levels with other of a national system of museum services. tension Unit, Co-ordination Unit, Dis-
cultural institutions, in order to organize Number of volumes in the library: play Unit ; Department of Research :
systematically their holdings with the aim 3,000. Pre-Hispanic Unit, Documentation
of establishing common systems for clas- Periodical : GAN Bulletin Unit ; Centro de Información Nacional
sifying and cataloguing those works of art (three-monthly). de las Artes Plásticas (National Informa-
which constitute our cultural and histori- Exhibition catalogues : approximately tion Centre on the Plastic Arts) ;Depart-
cal legacy. To promote the establishment twelve a year. ment of Educational Services : Educa-
of a National Centre for the Conservation Exhibition area: 2,700 m2. tional Materials Unit, Cultural Activities
and Restoration of Cultural Property. Unit, Children’s Workshop ; Department
of Conservation and Restoration : Draw-
Dissemination : to disseminate information Orgunizationul stracture ings and Prints, Oil Paintings, Sculpture,
on the whole history of Venezuelan art The organizational structure of the Ga- Archaeological Objects, Conservation
on a permanent basis, both nationally and lería de Arte Nacional is the result of sys- Unit ; Cataloguing Unit ; Publications
internationally, with the assistance of the tematic and continuous practical ex- Unit : Graphic Design, Reproduction,
anthropological and historical sciences. perience, which itself is based on a Press and Communications.
To co-ordinate and organize permanent theoretical model reflecting its spirit, con-
and temporary exhibitions in accordance cepts and principles. By virtue of its com-
with a wide-ranging and coherent policy prehensive approach and its dynamism,
Types o exhibition
f
on exhibitions, both within the gallery its functions include both the technical Permanent exhibition rooms : Pre-
itself and outside. This involves moving aspects of the plastic arts in Venezuela Columbian Art, Colonial Art, Nine-
radically away from the concept of the and also the purely administrative fields. teenth-century Art, the Caracas School,
museum as a static institution, by pre- With regard to its actual operational ac- ReverÓn, Contemporary Art. Historical
senting the work of art as a dynamic ex- tivities, the Galería de Arte Nacional and Documentary Exhibitions : Regional
pression of the human individual, which contains advisory and consultative bodies, Exhibitions, Exhibitions on Specific sub-
means avoiding passive scrutiny of works programme planning units responsible jects, New Artists, Biennial of the Visual
of art and achieving instead an active not only for planning and co-ordinating Arts.
communication with them at a variety of but also for the implementation of pro-
levels. grammes and, finally, the service units Services provided for
which establish the basic structure for
Promotion: to encourage creative work in implementing the programmes. This or-
the comnzzcnity
the plastic arts at all levels, and to help to ganizational structure may be divided Guided educational visits, Reference
provide Venezuelan artists with the full- into the following areas : Centre and Library of the Information
est possible assistance in publicizing and and Documentation Centre for the Plas-
promoting their work. Directorute: Director, assistant directors, tic Arts, Children’s Workshop, travelling
advisory and consultative bodies, Conser- exhibitions, technical co-operation and
Training o f personnel: to co-operate with vation and Promotion Board, Consulta- advice given to other museums, conserva-
the relevant state organizations specializ- tive Council. tion and restoration workshops.
[Translatedfrom .!@wish]

43. Gérard Collomb and Yves Renard
O n Marie-Gulunte (Gu&
a community and its ecomuseum J
The spectacular development of museums Inventory o Poplar Arts
f Fashioning a cartwheel hub on a
of ethnography in recent years has led to hand-driven lathe. Peasants, craftsmen and
und Traditions shopkeepers on the island were associated
many experiments whose objectives and with the inventory operations right from
methods are very diverse. As it did not For several years .now, the island has had the start. Most of the people solicited gave
seem appropriate to apply imported to make choices that affect its economy unstintingly of their time to provide
methods and as there was an increasing and social structure, without the popula- precious information about their occupations,
tions concerned always being able to play about what they knew concerning
need to make the museum more access- previous generations and about their own
ible to the general public, the experiment a real part in the decision-making that experience of social and economic changes
begun in 1976 in Marie-Galante was in- determines their future. Faced with the on the island.
spired from the start by the desire to con- need to emigrate, so as to escape unem- [Photo; Gérard Collomb.]
duct a comprehensive cultural project ployment, and influenced more and more
conceived by and for the public at large, by systems of values that are not those of
with a view to laying the basis for the the Negro and Creole societies, the in-
future ecomuseum. habitants of Marie-Galante risk losing the
greater part of their own culture and
hence what they claim to be their own
A n ethnoLogiculLy rich terrain identity.
Centred on the West Indies, ‘Plantation Like the rest of the Guadeloupe Ar-
America’ stretched from north-west chipelago-but more acutely here than
Brazil and the Guyanas to the south of elsewhere-Marie-Galante has therefore
the United States. Despite some variation had to try and define new development
in the natural environment, there are models based on the specific needs of the
many striking common features, on ac- island‘s inhabitants, and hence accepted
count of the fact that the whole history by them, while also improving the preser-
of the area reveals a regular pattern from vation of the natural resources, which are
one end of the bow-shaped West Indian all the more fragile in that the country is
archipelago to the other. overpopulated and overexploited by
Although many excellent foreign eth- single-crop farming.
nological works of high quality are avail- It was mainly as an attempt to provide
able, concerning for example Brazil or basic elements that could help to solve
islands such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or those problems that the Inventory of
Haiti, the French West Indies seem to Popular Arts and Traditions was con-
have aroused less interest among ethnol- ceived in 1976. The inventory was to
ogists, particularly French ethnologists.’ have the twofold purpose of highlighting
This lacuna, noted by anthropologists the local cultural heritage and providing
studying the Caribbean area, is even the population with information on its
more pronounced in connection with own past and its present, which could
Guadeloupe and the five islands or serve as a basis for this new development
archipelagos that make up its dependen- model.
cies. The intention, however, was not to
The research undertaken between treat the island as a special case, in oppo-
1978 and 1980 on the culture of the sition to its neighbours. A similar oper-
island of Marie-Galante fills this gap to ation could have been carried out, with 1. A number of important works must be
a certain extent. But the real interest of the same chance of success no doubt, on taken into account-those of M, Leiris and of
historians and geographers such as G. Debien or
such a study seems to us to lie elsewhere : the leeward coast of Guadeloupe or in the J. Petitjeanroget on slave society, or G. Lasserre’s
desired and to a great extent conducted town of Pointe-&Pitre. On the contrary, thesis on Guadeloupe. The research publications
by the people of Marie-Galante them- because Marie-Galante by its very size of the Caribbean Research Centre, directed until
1979 by Jean Benoist, of the University of
selves, the Iriventoy o Popular Asts and constituted a perfect unit for carrying out
f Montreal, also constitute outstanding work on
Tsaditiom o A.larie-Ga¿unte2 is an attempt such an operation, and because a speci-
f the culture of the Creole-speaking West Indies.
to involve a population in the recogni- fic culture has been maintained in this 2. The term ‘inventory’, which suggests a
fragmentation of social and cultural facts, does
tion and development of its own culture, island, whereas it has lost some of its not, perhaps, give a true idea of the work
through which it may perhaps find its fu- richness elsewhere, it seemed possible to involved, which is aimed at covering cultural
facts in their totality. But at least this term
ture identity and help to define a type launch there a project that would serve as clearly indicates a desire to conduct an overall
of development corresponding to its an example for the whole Guadeloupe ethnological programme in which no field is left
aspirations. Archipelago. unexplored.

44. I IO Gérard Collomb and Yves Renard
Gérard Collomb Joint action by those responsible for the Centre National de la Recherche
the Guadeloupe Natural Park and for the Scientifique (CNRS) and Chief Curator
Born in 1948. Doctorate in ethnology. Guadeloupe History Society enabled this of the museum, information and advice
Responsible for the regional ethnology section project to get off the g r ~ u n d . ~ to the Natural Park and the Guadeloupe
at the Musée Savoisien, Chambéry, France,
1970-73. Research assistant at the Musée Right from the start the population of History Society in the fields of ethnolog-
National du Gabon, Libreville, 1973-76. Curator Marie-Galante was associated in the defi- ical research and museography, and in as-
in charge of the Department of Techniques and nition of objectives and programmes. sociation with the park and the History
Agriculture at the Musée des Arts et Traditions Many meetings were organized on the Society arranged for additional surveys by
Populaim, Paris, 1976-80. Since then, research
assistant at the Centre National de la Recherche
spot with teachers, groups of young specialized researchers, for example in
Scientifique. Has carried out research since 1970 people, various associations, and special-
on Alpine rural communities, on the Banzebi of ists in anthropological research in the 3. The advice and support of Georges Henri
southern Gabon and on the vernacular Caribbean were also con~ulted.~ eth-An Rivière, who after a mission to the island in
architecture of the French-speaking Lesser 1974 drew up an initial plan for developing the
Antilles.
nologist familiar with Marie-Galante, cultural heritage of the island, were essential and
André Laplante, carried out a one-year enabled a coherent programme of work to be
established, which was approved by the Direction
study mission leading to the drafting in des Musées de France and the Fonds
1977 of a final ~rogramme.~ d'Intervention Culturelle.
4. The advice and support of Jean Benoist and
In 1978 and 1979, the National Serge Iarose, of the Caribbean Research Centre,
Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions have been decisive factors in the smooth running
(Paris) and the Centre d'Ethnologie Fran- of the operation.
5 . A. Laplante, T a i i n et arts populaires de
rdtos
çaise provided, under the authority of Marie-Galante, Parc Naturel de Guadeloupe,
Jean Cuisenier, Director of Research at 1976.
Coffee, indigo, cotton and sugar-cane
formerly ensured the island's prosperity,
reinforced when the nineteenth-century
sugar crisis led to single-crop farming in
sugar. Today high-yield varieties of
sugar-cane grown on a large scale form the
bulk of the island's agricultural production,
most of which is destined for the Grande
Anse refinery, with only a small share
remaining for the five agricultural
distilleries. Food crops are still significant,
however, ensuring local consumption, and
fishing offers another source of food.
[Photo; Gérard Collomb.].
Sugar-cane supply to the Grande Anse
refinery.
[Photo; Gérard Collomb.]

45. On Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) : a community and its ecomuseum III
ethno-musicology or on architecture and niques and work with them on the analy- Yves Renard
habitat. sis and classification of the data collected.
Assistance from outside specialists has A two-monthly newsletter, of which 400 Born in France in 1953. Co-ordinator of cultural
also been sought, in areas in which the copies were sent out, supplemented the and educational programmes of the Guadeloupe
Natural Park, 1 9 7 4 4 0 , in which capacity he
field-work teams felt the need for scien- circulation of information between the directed the Inventory of Traditions and Popular
tific support. One research worker from actual or potential collaborators of the in- Arts of Marie-Galante. Now lives on‘ Sainte-Lucie
the ecomuseum at Creusot-Montceau- ventory. It announced meetings, public and is involved in several heritage safeguard
les-Mines was thus requested in 1978 to events or exhibitions. projects in the Lesser Antilles, particularly the
Eastern Caribbean Natural Area Management
make a study of the industrial heritage of This decision to involve certain popu- Programme and the Caribbean Conservation
the island. lation groups of the island as broadly as Association.
Recently this operation, which was en- possible in the survey was not without
visaged at the start as a short-term proj- risk, but in our view it had great advan-
ect, has been taken up by the network tages. There was an astonishing richness
of departmental museums established and quality about the data collected, for
through the good offices of the General example, by one team carrying out a
Council of Guadeloupe and by the Asso- study on children’s games and toys, and
ciation of the Friends of the Ecomuseum, by a teacher studying fishing techniques.
created by the islanders themselves. This In such cases, determination to achieve
will ensure a follow-up to the action in an exhaustive survey largely made up for
which the population is now involved the lack of training in ethnological tech-
and the establishment of the basis for niques. But what is more, when it comes
what will shortly become the Marie- to describing the rules of games of
Galante Ecomuseum. marbles or the making of lobster-pots, if
The ethnographical surveys are carried the researcher himself has played such
out on the basis of a general programme games or fished regularly-and also if he
adapted to the cultural situation in West is perfectly at home in his informant’s
Indian societies. Several research teams language, because it is his own-the ad-
were composed of inhabitants of Marie- vantage is obvious. And so as the surveys
Galante as well as a number of people develop, a dialogue is established between
residing on the island, who became in- the young teacher, agricultural extension
volved in the study of specific aspects of specialist or socio-cultural development
the local culture and regularly carried out worker and the fisherman, krmer or arti-
surveys during their leisure time. These san who is questioned, not by some
included a high proportion of teachers, stranger but by someone known and
which is not surprising inasmuch as the often close in the small community of the
inventory project mainly covered areas island. In many cases the discussion of
with which teachers were already con- cultural property common to informant
cerned. Each year meetings were or- and researcher alike may strengthen the
ganized between those responsible for the overstretched links between the various
inventory and the primary- and secon- age-groups, and may even help to narrow
dary-school teachers in the island, to keep existing social and economic gulfs.
them informed of current programmes If the necessary scientific approach is to
and to organize their participation. The be maintained in gathering information,
inventory also regularly received trainees this process requires that those respon-
and students, who were able to take ad- sible for the inventory should themselves
vantage of the established infrastructure possess a sound knowledge of ethnogra-
to carry out the research work required phy and be capable of co-ordinating
for their course of study. groups of individuals whose training dif- A now rare type of agricultural labourer’s
The choice of subjects was left in any fers as regards type and level of specializa- hut, with cob walls built from locally
case to the people carrying out the re- tion. available materials.
search ; those responsible tried, however, Entirely in contrast to the traditional [Photo: Gérard Collomb.]
as far as possible, to guide the work organization pattern of an ethnological
towards themes that appeared to deserve survey, the operation conducted on
priority, on account of their significance Marie-Galante attached great importance
for the population or the urgency of col- to the rapid distribution of research re-
lecting data and above all to co-ordinate sults and to the highlighting of local cul-
it so that the different research projects ture. With regard to the achievement of
might complement and support each the museographical model thus outlined,
other. At regular working meetings, the the circulation of information has so far
research teams were assisted by those re- been ensured mainly by temporary exhi-
sponsible for the inventory, who helped bitions.
them to draw up their programme of Four exhibitions have been organized
work, introduce them to survey tech- since the inventory was started. The sub-

46. II2 Gérard Collomb and Yves Renard
Towards an ecomuseum unit is an invaluable example of the ac-
tivities and techniques of the sugar indus-
A smallholder's house surrounded by a The concept of the ecomuseum," which try at the end of the nineteenth century.
carefdy maintained garden-symbol of a breaks away from traditional museology, The inventory of the installation and the
society now undergoing complete implies choices and requires conservation photographic and film recordings of its
transformation.
[Photo: Gérard Collomb.] techniques adapted to an understanding activities have already been carried out ;
of much more complex situations than one of the next tasks will be to study the
the object traditionally displayed in our operation of these small production units,
institutions. But although the problems which formed a focal point for the rural
involved are greater, the educational ap- economy of the island before the estab-
plications of projects of this type are well lishment of industrial sugar refineries.
known to be much more effective. In the The problem as always is to find ways
context of Marie-Galante, where there is of protecting this heritage without para-
a large rural population, where intense lysing it and of preserving it without re-
agricultural activity preserves traditionally ducing it to atrophy. The transformation
.- . . established structures, the first essential is of these operating craft units into 'show-
to take into account the cultural units cases' in a fragmented museum would
scattered throughout the island, the terri- certainly be satisfactory from the conser-
tory of the ecomuseum. vation point ofview but might cut them
The importance of sugar-cane cultiva- off from the rural population. The re-
jects-food farming and forms of collec- tion in the present economy and in the lationship of most of the population to
tive organization of work, medicinal history of Marie-Galante, as well as the these distilleries-to take only this example
plants, children's games and toys, fishing high quality of the corresponding prod- -is essentially a sugar-cane producer-
and fishermen-rdect the variety of sur- ucts, required special action to achieve buyer relationship or a rum-producer-
vey themes selected by the research teams. recognition and preservation of the heri- consumer relationship. It is in no way
The interest shown by the local popula- tage linked to that activity. Out of over a spectator-object relationship, which
tion in the inventory can be seen by the eighty windmills working in the sugar would inevitably be created if the distil-
attendance figures : although the exhibi- refineries in the mid-nineteenth century, leries became museums.
tion on medicinal plants, held in the only three or four buildings have sur- Research and organizational activities
spring of 1978, after a slowing of the vived, which could usefully be restored. will be centred in future around the
inventory's activities for more than six The windmill at Murat, of which the in- structure being established in the former
months, drew only 4 800 visitors, the ex- ternal mechanism has already been re- Murat residence, the focal point of the
hibition on children's games was at- stored, should soon have its restoration ecomuseum. Although it is intended in
tended by over 5,000 people and that on completed and find a place in the pro- the medium term to transfer to Murat all
fishing by over 9,000, which is significant gramme of the future ecomuseum. the activities concerning the inventory,
in relation to a total population of about The artisanal distilleries, five of which the documentation (sound archives,
16,000 inhabitants. The catalogues and are still functioning today, are another photo library, library) and the administra-
guides accompanying these exhibitions part of the island's living agricultural tive offices are still in the Grand-Bourg
-material compiled for the educated heritage, and the discovery at Grand- centre. This arrangement has the advan-
public and a way of presenting to the Bourg of the Poisson distillery is one of
6. See George Henri Rivière's 0;f;nitioti
population of Marie-Galante the results the highlights of a journey into the in- éuolutiue de L'écoco"%, Paris, ICOM, 1980.
of the research undertaken, as well as an terior of the island. This small steam-run Mimeographed, French only.
important motivation for the team carry- Ecomuseum project drawn up a t 1 Vehicle entrance 14 Food crops
ing out the work-are publications in- , the close of the inventory: 2 Parking 15 Sugar cane
cluding field material and reviewing the 3 Guardian 16 Meadow
4 Pedestrians' entrance 17 Main vista
research done on the subject. 5 Service entrance 18 Park
The temporary exhibitions, regarded as 6 Museum 19 Fruit trees
7 TemDorarv exhibitions 20 Archives
one of the ways in which the results of 8 Esplanacje' 21 Sugar refinery
the ethnographic survey can be turned 9 Parterre 22 Mill
10 Medicin al plants 23 Animal-driven mill
back to the population, also provided op- 11 Road to pond 24 Ruins
portunity for a continuing dialogue. The 25 Uncultivated area,
13 Creole gardens shrubs
permanent attendance of one member of
the research team during the exhibition
opening hours makes it possible to pro-
vide explanations to guide visitors but
also to collect further information on the
subject concerned. Often the objects and
information displayed encourage a poten-
tial source of information to go further,
to make an effort to think back, perhaps
more than he would have done if inter-
viewed outside the context of the
exhibition.

47. O n Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe) : a community and its ecomuseum 113
West Indian sugar refinery in the eighteenth
century.
[Photo: Musée des Arts et Traditions
Populaires, Paris.]
tage for the moment of encouraging con-
tacts with people from rural areas coming
into town, who may bring in informa-
tion; such visits will be more difficult
when those responsible for the operation
are installed at Murat. The intentionally
limited nature of the transformations
made is at present one of the essential
conditions for the functioning of the in-
ventory, while making it possible to es-
tablish the collections and ensure their
preservation in the medium term, until
other solutions may be found.
The ground floor of the Murat build- different forms of craft production and mechanisms that it would be too easy to
ing now houses the temporary exhibi- the main characteristics of rural architec- call acculturation, for in fact what is tak-
tions, about two or three per year. The ture, of which it is becoming urgent to ing place is the emergence of a new cul-
forthcoming conversion of an annex will preserve specimens. This area for discov- ture. In such a situation it seems impor-
make it possible in future to liberate these ery and knowledge will also be a space for tant to find ways of understanding the
rooms in order to set up a permanent ex- preserving ancient varieties of sugar-cane phenomena that are at the heart of the
hibition on the social and cultural history now supplanted by more productive present changes.
of Marie-Galante, with additional exhibi- varieties and, in general, the preservation Placed at the junction of two worlds,
tions based on the permanent exhibition of plants and animals (such as the frizzle of two cultures that meet and sometimes
but developing more limited themes. fowl) which are threatened with extinc- clash, the institution that has thus been
In addition to the organization of per- tion through the transformation of established provides the administrative
manent or temporary exhibitions, future agricultural life. basis for the achievement of an overall
research in the island should provide ma- programme. Even today, the ecomuseum
terial for the establishment of a real of Marie-Galante is in a privileged posi-
ecomuseum in the estate of several hec-
Prospects tion to bring the inhabitants of the island
tares surrounding the Murat building. Set The recognition of the traditional Negro information and material that will enable
out around a central pathway, the natural and Creole cultures of Marie-Galante and them to decide more clearly on the
environment of the island and its corre- the preservation of examples of these choices they alone have to make. This is
sponding human activities will be pre- rapidly changing cultures constitute one doubtless the main justification for this
sented, bringing out and showing the of the aims of the research undertaken in venture and for the confidence the popu-
complexity of the agriculture systems, the the island, and the first results reveal a lation has shown in it from the outset.’
rich potential in this field. Thus the re-
search is an important contribution to [Trdmhted from Frer2cb]
the knowledge and presentation of the
original culture, which has been that of 7. This article was originally written two years
ago and the personnel responsible for the project
the French Caribbean islands since the have changed since then. Some orientations may
seventeenth century and which has sur- have changed as well and if so I.iuset/m will
report on them in a future issue.-Ed.
vived better here perhaps than on the
Guadaloupe ‘mainland‘ or in Martinique.
But at the same time Marie-Galante is
confronted with the problems that con-
cern all the Caribbean islands : economic
uncertainty and difficulties, which are
Nineteenth-century master’s house in the counteracted by social assistance from the
former hfurat property (or habitation’).
The edifice and its dependencies were placed ‘metropole’; the population drain towards
at the disposal of the inventory in order to the urban, local or metropolitan centres,
house its collections, the scientific and where people hope to find jobs (almost a
technical personnel and the temporary third of the population of Marie-Galante
exhibition.
[photo; Gérard Collomb.] has emigrated to Pointe-à-Pitre) and, as a
direct consequence of this, the increasing
upheaval of the social and cultural sys-
tems. This sudden cultural shock reveals

48. View of a section of the reconstructed
enclosure walls of the upper part of the
Inca fortress of Chena, near San Bernardo,
Santiago de Chile, 1980.
[Photo: Rubén Stehberg.]
Throughout Ldtin America, the archaeolog-
ical heritage, urgently in need o f safguard
contributes to the d&nition o f that special
composite identity going back two millennia
and more. The two artìcles that follow deal
with but a tiny sample o f the thousands of
sites throughout the continent and in the
islamh. They describe attempts to @pLy the
prin.iples o f modem museoLogy with respect to
site museum.
In Chde the Nutionul Museum
o Nuturd History deuelops
f
Rubén StehbergurchueoZogicuZ sites
Born in 1950 in Santiago de Chile. Degree in Introdaction Andean identity.‘ At the same time it
Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Chile,
1976. Project Engineer in Industrial Chemistry,
provides the metropolitan area of
State Technical University, 1973. Head of the In 1975 the National Museum of Na- Santiag-which contains 4 million
Anthropological Laboratory of the National tural History in Santiago began a pro- people-with at least one site of archae-
Museum of Natural History since 1974 and
Professor of Archaeology in the University of gramme to carry out research on prehis- ological interest that can be viewed by
Chile since 1976. His special field is the toric sites and work on their conservation the public in its original surroundings at
prehistory of central Chile, the restoration of and restoration. The objectives of this each of the four points of the compass.
ancient monuments and the reconstruction of
archaeological sites. Has published four programme are to safeguard certain ar- Although there is legislation covering
monographs and twenty-five scientific articles in chaeological monuments that are ob- national monuments (Law No. 17.288),
specialized journals.
viously in danger of disappearing alto- it does not provide for special funds to be
gether as the result of increasing urban allocated so that such remains may be in-
growth and to make available new infor- vestigated, conserved and restored. The
mation on the prehistory of the region scientific experience and likely future de-
to a metropolitan area that, on account velopment of national and/or regional
of its excessive immersion in the pres- museums make these best qualified to
ent, has shown little interest in its pre- carry out this essential task.
Hispanic past. In 1975 there were in the
area around Santiago no pre-Columbian Criterid upplied in selecting
monuments that had been restored and
signiJicunt sites
could be visited by local people. The
museum is carrying out this programme One of the most interesting aspects of the
in stages and, in addition to using its programme concerns the selection of sig-
own funds, is calling upon municipal, nificant sitesz The main criteria applied
private and international sources of here are the following :
finance, including contributions from Representativeness. The sites chosen
1 . See Grete Mostny, Prehistotia de Chile, Unesco. must be representative of the culture
Santiago, Editorial Universitaria, 1977, and ‘The
Role of Museums in Today’s Latin America’, The restoration of these monuments or the society to which they belonged.
Museum, Vol. XXV, No. 3 , 1973. helps to bring the city dweller into direct Unusual or unique archaeological re-
2 . Carlos Munizaga, ‘Arquelogía : Algunas contact with his roots and enables him to mains, for example, do not give gen-
funciones urbanas y de educación. Antecedentes
para el estudio de ‘sitios testigo’ en Santiago de rediscover his origins, contributing to the eral evidence of a way of life.
Chile’, Reuisfu CODECI (Santiago), Vol. 1, 1981. search for his own Latin American and Significance. The remains must corre-

49. I n Chile the National Museum of Natural History develops archaeological sites 115
spond to significant stages of cultural that are 500 years old and are one of the shops, stone monuments, etc., will make
development. The remains as a whole most southerly examples of remains of it necessary to broaden the initial project.
should cover a a considerable period of the Inca Empire. This site has been Work carried out to improve the site and
time and give evidence of continuous studied, partially restored and developed make it into a centre of interest for tour-
occupation over that period. as a centre of cultural interest for the ists was centred on the burial mounds
Variety. In order to avoid repetition and metropolitan area.3 Because of its pos- and is now almost completed. The burial
make more rational and efficient use of ition on the top of small but steep hill, mounds have been excavated and re-
the resources available, sites should be a path had to be constructed ; it was made stored.“ One of them will have on display
selected that each show different to resemble a natural track, though a reproduction in fibreglass of a typical
characteristics. marked with explanatory signs. Beside a burial site. Using the same material, ob-
Geographical situation. Sites closest to small wood at the foot of the hill, a park- jects shaped like rocks and bearing
urban centres should be selected. ing area and camping site were laid out explanations in raised lettering on the
Ease of access. On account of their educa- and a site museum was built, containing
tional importance and their interest for an exhibition of models, some objects 3 . Rubén Stehberg, ‘La fortaleza de Chena y
su relación con la ocupación incaica de Chile
tourists, these sites should possess easy found on the site and explanatory notes Central’, Public. Ocas. A4m. Nac. Hisf. Nat.
means of access. on the expansion of the Incas towards Saxtiago, Vol. 23, 1976, pp. 3 4 7 , and
Preservation. As between two or more central Chile and also the role played by ‘Reflexiones acerca de la fortaleza inca de Chena’,
Reuista L educacidn (Santiago), Vol. 62, 1977,
sites of the same type, preference will the fortress. It was declared a National pp. 46-5 1.
be given to the one that stands in Historical Monument in 1977 and 4. Rubén Stehberg, ‘El complejo prehispánico
greatest danger of destruction. handed over to the care of the’ munici- Aconcagua en la Rinconada de HuechÚn’, Public.
Ocas. Mus. Nac. Hisf. Nat. Santiago, Vol. 35,
Monumentality. Ideally the sites chosen palities of Calera de Tango and San Ber- 1981, pp. 3-87.
should be of impressive size and ex- nardo at a formal inaugural ceremony
tent. However, this is not a feature of held on 12 December of the same year.
the cultures that existed in this area. Clear evidence of the impact this work NATIONAL MUSEUM NATURAL
OF HISTORY,
Location on state property. Work to de- made on the community was the decision Santiago de Chile. Fibreglass reproduction of
velop an archaeological site as a focal by the owners of the site to donate the a typical burial place in the burial mounds
point and make it suitable to be visited land on which the ruins were situated to of HuechÚn, showing bone, ceramic and
stone remains. The notices point out the
by tourists is made much more difficult the local municipalities and the incorpor- main features observed by anthropologists
if it is situated on private property. For ation of this monument into the coat of with regard to burial practices.
this reason preference should be given arms of the municipality of Calera de Photographed in the museum’s
to sites located on land owned by the Tango. Anthropological Laboratory, 1981.
[Photo: Rubén Stehberg.]
state. Among the main problems that have
Special criteria. In most cases there are arisen mention should be made of those
local factors that need to be taken into relating to the maintenance and upkeep
account : municipal problems, the sup- of the site.
ply of electricity and drinking water,
support from the local authority, etc. The buridl mounds at Huechha (33 004‘ S.,
70°49’ W.). These are situated 64 km
north of Santiago between the Northern
Work on the sites selected Pan-American Highway and the San
On the basis of the above criteria several Martin International Highway, vhich
archaeological sites were selected and ex- leads to Mendoza (Republic of Argen-
cavation work, conservation and restor- tina). They consist of the remains of a
ation carried out there. The sites give evi- community belonging to the Acon-
dence of a complete occupational caguan cultural group, which occupied
sequence in the late pre-Hispanic period this area around A.D. 1000. Work on the
in the Santiago Basin. They also provide mounds began early in 1980 and is now
examples of different types of indigenous nearing completion. Like the above site,
subsistence farming. The people who it received financial support from Unesco.
lived in them were, in effect, the first ar- Research carried out on the site has led
chitects of the city of Santiago. It was to the conclusion that the area was
their buildings, roads, irrigation works, densely populated during the period
etc., that led Pedro de Valdivia to decide known locally as the Aconcaguan Culture
that this would be the best place to found (A.D. 1000-1500), which reached a high
the capital of the kingdom. level of cultural development. Activity in
the Rinconada de HuechÚn was centred
The Inca fortress 4
Chew (33O36‘ S., on the exploitation of a quarry of
70°45’ W.). This monument is situated silicified rock produced by the action of
to the west of the city of San Bernardo, hot springs and providing material for
at a distance of 2.5 km from the making tools, which were exchanged
Southern Pan-American Highway and with neighbouring communities.
about 2 5 km from Santiago. It consists of The discovery of the remains of the
the remains of an Inca pucarú (fortress) village, irrigation channels, stone work-

50. 116 Rubén Stehberg
View of some of the burial mounds of the
cemetery of Huechún, Colina, 1981. In the
foreground is one of the burial mounds
Fibreglass reproduction of rocks with notices
in raised lettering concerning the cultural
features of the burial mounds of HuechÚn,
Colina, 1981.They will be placed at
various points around the site when it is
inaugurated.
[Photo; Rubén Stehberg.]
importance and cultural significance of terest and offered to study the feasibility museographical work successfully, the
the monument will be placed at various of providing financial support. When the museum needs to involve the community
points around the site. They have the ad- project has been finalized, research and in the task and communicate its scientific
vantage of fitting in with the landscape restoration work will begin with the help knowledge and outlook. It needs the sup-
and it is hoped that they will be more of the physical anthropologist Silvia Que- port and understanding of local, national
durable than metal signs (made of vedo. and international authorities. In this con-
painted iron) which rust after four or five The programme under discussion is in text, we should like to acknowledge that
years (this fs what has happened at keeping with the basic purposes of any Unesco’s vision and its financial assistance
Chena). j museum: to carry out research and con- have been key factors in initiating and
I serve and disseminate information about continuing the programme.
Archaeological centre of Farellones (3 3 O 2 1’ the nation’s natural and cultural heritage In this way the museum contributes to
S., 70°19‘ W.). This is situated in the and, by such means, educate and raise the the work of conserving, restoring, de-
Cordillera about 40 km to the east of level of cultural awareness of the public. veloping and improving prehistoric sites
Santiago, in the sporting complex of The experience gained in carrying out and making them accessible to visitors, in
Farellones, at a height of 2,800 m above this task will need to be evaluated and the search for the cultural roots of the
sea level. The site consists of stone re- shared with others. country and its identity. It thus contri-
mains (the House of Stone, stone In this particular case, the museum is butes to the attempt to define Latin
monuments, stone workshops) left by undertaking work in the field and carry- American culture and to the improve-
groups of indigenous mountain-dwellers ing out the kind of scientific activities in ment of the quality of life of its inhabi-
working as subsistence farmers. Work on which it specializes in order to help pre- tants through the many and varied effects
this site is still at the planning stage. It serve the country’s heritage on the ori- which such action has in the fields of
will consist of the establishment of an ar- ginal site, by transforming the area into a education, science and culture.
chaeological centre in the sporting com- focal point that can be visited and which
plex of Farellones, focusing on a collec- is also an open-air museum. [Translated from Spariìsh]
tion of stone remains, including a stone Although the archaeological objects
cavern (a natural mountain refüge), stone excavated go to the laboratories of the
monuments and a stone workshop. The National Museum, where they are
remains indicate mountain communities studied and information is published on
that exchanged produce with farming them, some of them are returned to the
communities in the valley. There are site and exhibited in the site museum.
plans to build a museum on the site as Likewise, the remains of buildings are re-
part of the project. This proposal was put stored and shown off to advantage in
to the civic authorities of the municipal- their original locations.
ity of Las Condes, who showed great in- To carry out this archaeological and

51. The Site M meum
o the El Cugo
f
ArchueoZogicuZ Purk
MUSEO SITIODEL PARQUE
DE ARQUÉOLOGICO
DE EL CAÑO,Panama. Line of basaltic
columns restored and re-erected in their
original positions.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
Reina Torres de Ara&
Background
The Site Museum of the El Caño Ar-
chaeological Park is located in the Pro-
vince of Coclé, in the Republic of Pa-
nama. Its originality resides, in our opi-
nion, in the fact that initially extremely
adverse circumstances and conditions
have been overcome by dint of seven
years of continuous work to produce a
truly representative, multifaceted cultural
monument.
This site, which is also known in the monolithic sculptures from El Caño. An archaeologìcal area
scientific literature as El Espavé, was mer- Although we have been given three op- rechìmed
cilessly plundered in 1926-27. At that portunities to study the collection of
time, the small new Republic of Panama, monolithic sculptures kept in the After 1927 the El Caño area was used for
with a bare twenty years of independence museum's storerooms and, by special ar- agricultural purposes by Panamanian land-
behind it, did not have personnel rangement, the ceramics collection, these owners who were unaware of its cultural
qualified to supervise archaeological exca- investigations were limited to a partial importance. Thus the only records of the
vations. However, for motives that can study of the catalogue cards and a direct time are some sporadc notes by travellers
only be ascribed to the political, econ- study during which we were able to and a few historic photographs showing
omic and social circumstances of the handle, measure and photograph the ob- tall unsculpted basaltic columns still
time, the Government of Panama gave jects. To date it has not been possible to standing on the surface. The monolithic
permission for the work to be undertaken determine the quantity of ceramic ma- sculptures, according to reports and
under the direction of Hyatt Verrill, from terial held, both broken and intact, be- sketches handed over by Verrill to the
the Heye Foundation in New York, to- cause of the inadequate storage condi- Museum of the American Indian, were
day the Museum of the American Indian. tions over the years, and also poor cata- discovered between three and nine metres
This situation, bad enough in itself, loguing. With regard to gold and silver below the surface. The same archaeologist
was exacerbated by the fact that, despite objects from Coclé held in the Museum also left a small plan showing what he
the provisions of the contract, Verrill did of the American Indian, we were not considered to be the original layout of the
not hand over to the newly established even allowed access to the information excavated monolithic sculptures and the
National Museum of Panama the propor- thereon in the archives. The only conces- basaltic columns.
tion of cultural material agreed on. sion made to us was an offer to supply In 1973 the National Directorate of
Indeed, only eight monolithic sculptures plastic reproductions of the monolithic the Historical Heritage of Panama was es-
from this site found their way into the sculptures. tablished and immediately set to work to
collections of the old National Museum It should be noted that the museum save the site of El Caño just as it was
of Panama (today reorganized into three used to include just two monolithic
or four archaeological and anthropologi- statues from El Caño in its permanent 1. It is worth noting that a small collection
cal museums). Moreover, a document ex- exhibitions, but six months ago even of similar objects was sent by Verrill to the
American Museum of Natural History, New
ists, drawn up by Panamanian officials of these were withdrawn because of a York. Consisting almost entirely of stone objects,
the time, denouncing the irregularity of change in the museography. Since then, the collection includes one of the most complete
and aesthetically superb statues of the whole El
the transaction. The Museum of the this material, which is of such importance Caño group. The eight monolithic sculptures
American Indian in New York, on the for Panamanian archaeology, has been given to the old National Museum of Panama
other hand, received a large number of stored away and is accessible only to re- were mostly broken, and although it was possible
to restore them, they are far from being the most
chests containing about a hundred searchers with the good fortune to obtain representative or perfect of the statues belonging
specimens, some intact, others broken, of the necessary special permit.' to this culture.

52. 118
, .
MUSEUMTHE AMERICANINDIAN, York.
OF New
One of the most characteristic sculptures of
t
.
-
Y .
the El Caño style, now located in the
museum.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
Original photograph of the Hyatt Verrill
excavations at El Caño (1926-27), showing
some of the sculptures subsequently placed
in the Museum of the American Indian,
New York.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
View of the site museum, between two
restored basaltic columns.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
being dug up by bulldozers to convert it their original position by bulldozers, over quire many years of work to clear up. In
into a sugar-cane plantation. Indeed, it eighty simply sculptured basaltic columns order to generate public interest, it was
was the exposure of one of the burial were found ; these originate from areas up decided to set up a small site museum to
mounds comprising the archaeological to ten kilometres away, having been display archaeological evidence as it came
area that led to the rediscovery of the site, transported to the site by the pre-Colum- to light and to open up to the public one
which had been practically forgotten bian cultures that flourished there from of the completely excavated burial
apart from the scanty records available at A.D. 800 until the time of the Spanish mounds with the burial objects on dis-
the Museum of the American Indian. conquest. This fact is borne out by the play ; also to display the road or platform
The Directorate of the Historical Venetian glass beads, Spanish enamelled and to create an authentic atmosphere by
Heritage was able to reclaim for the Pana- ceramics and horses’ bones found in one building a large pre-Columbian house
manian state eight hectares of the archae- of the burial mounds. such as is described and illustrated by one
ological area where the first excavations The fact that a hill called ‘Cerrezuela’ of the first Spanish conquistadores to
were made at the time when the site was carrying the original vegetation exists in enter the region between 15 16 and 15 2 O .
plundered by Verrill in 1926-27. The the middle of this area, which had been This venture was successfully accom-
area was heavily eroded, since it had been used as farmland for centuries (1516- plished thanks to the ethno-cultural tra-
used for crop growing and cattle grazing 1973), and that the remains of roads and dition still existing in the highlands of
for close on fifty years and had also been wall buttresses were discovered there, has the region. Peasants with knowledge of
the subject of illegal archaeological digs, led to a move to have this hill declared pre-Columbian architecture came from
some of them not even recorded in the part of the natural and cultural heritage there to build this large house entirely
scientific literature. However, the burial of the region. At present legislation is be- from materials like those described in the
mounds, which are perfectly discernible ing enacted that will make this hill part historical accounts and still found in the
in the area, were not badly damaged. of the El Caño Archaeological Park. region today. These accounts were also
Only the upper cones of two of them had carefully followed for the layout and dec-
been partially cut away by the bulldozers, A site museu?n based oration of the house, which has a radius
and to date eight such mounds have been of eight metres. To give a more vivid im-
preserved. A road or foundation made of
on ethno-historical traditions pression of the pre-Columbian Indian of
selected stones is another feature that has W e are aware that the park still holds the last few centuries before his en-
been saved. Although ripped up from many surprises and mysteries that will re- counter with the European, dummy

53. The Site Museum of the El Caño Archaeological Park
figures were placed in the house, dressed of the pre-Columbian cultures of this re- given, such as the possibility that they
according to the fashion illustrated on gion. were part of a complex for a West Indian
the rich collection of Coclé ceramics, This large house, which is now 'in- form of the game of pelota called buteq'n),
t
down to the last detail, including habited' by six models and has back- and the architectural remains of Cer-
make-up. A few pieces of jewellery recov- ground music composed by national ar- rezuela, which rises in the distance like a
ered in the excavations over the past few tists and interpreted on ocarinas and watchtower demanding, as it were, to be
years were reproduced in less noble metals ancient whistles from Coclé, is sur- investigated in the near future.
and used to adorn the figures. However, .rounded by a path that allows the visitor The first series of sixty-six basaltic
we know that most of the jewellery disap- to view the house completely from the columns that have been restored and now
peared in the tragic plundering and is outside, since only partial access to the tower over the site serves to herald what
now located in the Museum of the five rooms is permitted, in order to pro- is likely to be achieved in the next few
American Indian, the American Museum tect the valuable archaeological material years, using a simple and flexible museo-
of Natural History, the Peabody Museum exhibited, especially the original ceramics logical approach. Today we can exhibit
of Harvard University and the Museum from Coclé. only 6 monolithic sculptures of the 110
of the University of Pennsylvania. Finally, at the rear of the house there is known to exist. The various polite re-
A detailed study of the folkloric re- an extensive pre-Columbian kitchen gar- quests for their restitution made through
mains of the Coclé region enabled us to den with the local and scientific names of diplomatic and personal channels, in
fill in some of the gaps that archaeology each species duly labelled, so that the visi- which the possibility of exchanges .or
could not cover, it having been imposs- tor can see what crops were grown by the loans was mooted, or even collaboration
ible for items such as wickerwork, nets, Panamanians of that time. on scientific research and modern excava-
farm implements, mats, etc., to survive tions on the site, have all fallen on stony
through the ages under Panamanian cli- ground.
matic conditions. The reproduction of
Hopesfor the fntnre
But the entire venture in the begin-
the tapestries, beautiful garments and hair Although this project is still at an early ning seemed to be an impossible task.
adornments described by the chroniclers stage, we believe that it is already fulfil- Through it we are now succeeding in sav-
was entrusted to distinguished national ling a cultural and didactic function and ing a site eroded by centuries of agricul-
artists, who were guided in their work by will be hrther enhanced by archaeolog- tural use and subjected to archaeological
the designs found on Codé ceramics and ical explorations conducted every year plundering. The site is now being sur-
jewellery. during the dry season (five months veyed with a view to restoring the ori-
One of the most interesting details of maximum). ginal vegetation, and ultimately we hope
this site museum is the kitchen-pantry, There are still some questions to be to present the archaeological remains of
which as a result of the taxidermist's art cleared up, such as the arrangement and settlements and fortifications in a truly
contains birds and mammals reared by the purpose of the basaltic columns (of authentic environmental setting.
Coclé Indians, as well as typical foodstuffs which various interpretations have been [Trdnslated from Spaizìsb]
"-* 1-
Burial mound on permanent display
showing bones and funerary offerings.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
External view of the pre-Columbian
dwelling, or House of the Caciqua, built
according to descriptions left by chroniclers
and con uistadores with the aid of skills
retained& Indian peasants of the region.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]
Inside of house, with three models dressed
in pre-Columbian costumes. The designs
on the tapestries, clothes and jewellery
were copied from archaeological finds.
[Photo: Parque Arquéologico de El Caño.]

54. I20
The late Reina Torres de Ara&
receiving a pre-Columbian vase from
Panama that was returned to the
country by a representative of the
Government of Costa Rica in 1976.
[Photo: INAC.]
REINA TORRES DE A R A Ú Z
It is with very deep sadness that we announce well. Director of the reviews Hombre culturu
the death on 26 February 1972 of Mrs Reina and Patritnovzio histotiro, her original ar ..,les and
Torres de Araúz. Despite her long and debilitat- publications were numerous.
ing illness Mrs Torres de Ara& was dynamic Reina Torres de Araúz represented Panama
and infatigable to the end in her efforts to pre- on the World Heritage Committee, of which
serve and present the cultural heritage. So much she was a former Vice-president. But her ener-
so that she contributed two major articles to getic contributions to international co-oper-
this issue, the one on page 117 and another on ation and particularly to strengthening infra-
illicit traffic in cultural property (p. 134). structures in the Central American region were
Reina Torres de Ara& would not be deterred even more fruitful behind the scenes. She was
from keeping her promise to Museum for this ever ready to tackle new problems and advise
special issue. She was as dedicated to regional colleagues from all countries.
and international co-operation as to museum Her dedication to the museums of Panama
development in her own country. was boundless and their present strength is the
Born in Panama on 30 October 1932, Reina result of her patient years of work. Under her
Torres de Ara& studied history and anthro- guidance collections were built up, conservation
pology at the University of Buenos Aires, earn- laboratories established, new museums pro-
ing her doctorate in anthropology in 195 4. She grammed or old ones renovated, various train-
became Professor of Anthropology at the Uni- ing programmes launched. Bold and imagin-
versity of Panama in 1955 and in 1961 Hon- ative links were also established with museums
orary Director of the university’s Centre for elsewhere that hold significant Panamanian ob-
Anthropological Research. In 1962 she was jects whose return or restitution is sought. A
Honorary Director of the National Commission constructive pioneer in this field, she prepared a
for Archaeology and Historic Monuments. very thorough document on the subject for
From 1967 to 1969 she was chief planner in an Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee on re-
interdisciplinary study commission on the de- turn and restitution, which was warmly com-
velopment of national consciousness attached to mended by the committee.
the office of the President. In 1969/70 she was In her last letter to Museum dated 28 De-
Director of the National Heritage in the Na- cember 1981 she sent us a copy of the country’s
tional Institute of Culture (INAC), of which comprehensive new ‘Ley de Control Arqueolo-
she was also appointed Vice-Director. In 1972 gico’, explaining that it had been approved a
she was named Vice-president of the commis- few days earlier, ‘the best Christmas present we
sion to reform the country’s constitution. could have wished for after nine years of
This distinguished public career was matched struggle’.
by an impressive amount of research, training The international museum community will
and information exchange activity in many cul- deeply grieve her passing.
tural heritage fields and in social medicine as

55. I21
A ZocuZZy creuted restorution
-
Alejandro Rojas Garcia centre in GnutmaZu
Born in 1938 in Champusco, Mexico. Studied necessity to help solve the problem. W e
painting and sculpture and painting, sculpture considered three possible approaches : a
and textile restoration. Assistant restorer for the small workshop for restoring paintings,
murals by Diego Rivera in thc Palacio de Cortés
in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, 1962. Restorer
which could expand over a period and
of paintings on the Tepotzotlán project and in cover other fields ;a workshop that would
the Museo Nacional del Virreinato, 1964-70. deal at least with paintings and sculpture ;
Head of the Restoration Workshop of the Museo or finally a large, multipurpose workshop.
'
Nacional del Virreinato (1970-72) and then
Assistant Technical Director of the museum,
The shortage of funds forced the coun-
1972-77. Co-ordinator of the Museums of the cil to accept the first proposal and to seek
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, ways of covering the costs of at least the
1977-78. Co-ordinator of training in museology basic materials needed, such as equipment
I I
at the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, and tools. Trainees and students would
Restauración y Muscografh, 1978- . Adviser on Training in cleaning the surface of a
conservation for the Franz Mayer Collection of
be asked to Pay a sum in Order painting. Antigua Guatemala, November
the Banco de México, since 1979. Numerous to help with the cost of some materials ; 1976.
publications on restoration of works of art. craftsmen would be granted fellowships [photo; Alejandro Rojas Garcia.]
It2 1975 the Ne,&m restorer Alejmdro
Roja Gurciu war usked by the Consejo Nu-
donal! pura h Protección d h Antigua
e
Guutetnuh (Nutionul Councilfor the Protec-
tion o f Antigua Guate") to co-ordinate
the estublìshmeiat of a restoration centre. The
council's resources were extremely Limited but
through a combìnution of iiadigenous tulent,
voluntuty work, support in kind from both
public and pbvute sources, this appure?ztly
risky venture soon proved a success. Above ull,
it h a beer2 uble to train u sign$cunt number
of restorers for the countiy und the Central
Amebcan region.
When I visited Antigua Guatemala in
1975, in order to examine the possibility
of setting up a restoration workshop for
the benefit of small museums, I could
hardly imagine the proportions the proj-
ect would take on over the years, es-
pecially judging from the limited finan-
cial resources available.
Among the first problems to be tackled
was the lack of qualified personnel. Next
' it was necessary to find a means of long-
distance supervision, since Guatemala had
no qualified restorer. To engage a
foreigner would mean granting a fixed-
term contract-an expensive solution,
beyond our means. The permanent chal-
lenge, of course, was to find the resources
for the venture and carry it out as econ-
omically as possible.
Such a situation might have caused
anybody to lose heart, but in view of
Antigua's position as a 'museum-city' in
its own right there was obviously a moral

56. I22 Aleiandro Roias Garcia
sence the students were given the task of
beginning to compile a catalogue of the
works in public buildings, together with
an inventory of damaged works, as this
was a task that could be carried out with-
out direct supervision.
Training in cleaning the back of a painting. The next step was to choose a suitable
Antigua Guatemala, March 1976. person to co-ordinate the work of the
Photo :Alejandro Rojas Garcia.]
workshop. The person chosen was Maga-
rita Estrada, who had spent a month in
the Restoration Workshop of the Na-
tional Museum of the Vice-Royalty in
Mexico City, for training in the adminis-
tration of a workshop and, in addition, to
further her knowledge of restoration
techniques.
The following period with the group
was devoted to co-ordinating the work of
two restorers: Rosa Elvira Romero
Langle, with only brief professional ex-
perience, and Rosa Diez, who already had
considerable experience and was respon-
sible for directing the more difficult
work. Miss Romero arrived in Antigua in
the first half of May and Rosa Diez ar-
rived in the second half to meet the
group and to solve any problems that
might have arisen through Miss Ro-
mero’s lack of experience.
The third stage was carried out under
the supervision of two trainees in the dip-
equivalent in value to the money that had loma course in the Restoration of Mov-
been received.* able Property, Rebeca Duarte and Alejan-
The council also sought the help of dro Reyes, who were present during the
businessmen, industrialists and hoteliers ; months of July and August, though Re-
such assistance ranged from discounts on beca Duarte stayed on until November.
accommodation and food to money or In that same month we returned to take
plane tickets. The training workshop be- over the final stage of the training pro-
gan its operations in March 1976 in spite gramme and to choose the staff that
of the problems caused by the February would be continuing work on a per-
1976 earthquake, or perhaps precisely be- manent basis. A second stage of practical
cause of the psychological need to recover training was planned on the basis of visits
from the disaster. The simple problem of arranged with the restorer Rosa Diez,
buying materials seemed insoluble, since who agreed to work for a month with the
because of the post-earthquake situation group for the sake of greater continuity.
the dealers wished to sell only boards, By March 1978, when the workshop
hammers, wood and nails and, not un- had been in operation for two years, it
reasonably, refused to enter their half- had proved to be a huge success.
destroyed shops where threat of total
collapse was ever present.
1. In addition, the free and spontaneous
assistance offered by Mexico through two
subsidiary bodies of the INAH (Instituto
Progress in stdges Nacional de Antropología e Historia). These
were the Escuela Nacional de Conservación.
The first week of work, rather than Restauración y hluseografia (National School of
providing everyone with the opportunity Conservation, Restoration and Museography) and
to gain an insight into the job and the the Taller de Restauración del Museo Nacional
del Virreinato (Restoration Workshop of the
problems ahead, produced the first drop- National Museum of the Vice-Royalty). The
outs. Out of a group of fifteen students National School agreed to let trainees studying
for the diploma in the restoration of movable
we were left with only ten (an example of property help during their holidays (and who in
natural selection !). In the following this way were able to do their compulsory social
week, however, work began in earnest, service) and the museum sent members of its
workshop (beginning with the author), who
and by the end of that first period six agreed to spend their holidays working without
paintings had been remounted. In our ab- pay in Antigua Guatemala.

57. A locally created restoration centre in Guatemala 123
Although the staff' never exceeded five re- who had begun in 1976 on the first perts, whose help is naturally welcome
storers, forty paintings of various sizes, course. and who are still needed to provide train-
including some which were very large, The workshop of the CNPAG in An- ing. But even without such help, Guate-
had been restored. International organiza- tigua is now a restoration centre that not mala is no longer in danger of losing its
tions, such as Unesco and the Organiza- only meets the needs of the area of An- cultural heritage through lack of trained
tion of American States (OAS) , took an tigua Guatemala but also often advises on personnel.
interest in the restoration workshop and restoration in other areas. Since 1979, [Trmdated from Spaaìsh]
made sizeable contributions that made it with Unesco's backing, it has provided
possible, for example, to restore the support services for the whole of Central
cloister, known as El Lazereto, of the America, at first by means of a prepara-
ruined monastery. tory training programme consisting of a
Guatemala's substantial and urgent month's course covering the theoretical
needs in this field made a deep impression side together with practical work in re-
on the political and civil authorities, and storing paintings, then in 1980 a three-
as a result other restoration workshops month course devoted to the restoration
were set up in Guatemala City, one of of paintings.
'
which at first formed part of the recovery As a result Guatemalan restorers have
unit set up as a result of the earthquake been trained in the restoration of paint-
but which was afterwards transferred to ings, sculpture, polychrome wood and
the Instituto de Antropología de Guate- murals, and it has been possible to help in
mala (Institute of Anthropology), while the training of restorers in other coun-
the other came under the Instituto de tries, such as Honduras, Costa Rica, Ni-
Arte Colonial de Guatemala (Institute of caragua, El Salvador, Panama and the
Colonial Art). The first, following the Dominican Republic. With the three Practice in detaching a mural : the
example of Antigua, sought to engage workshops, two in the capital and the preparatory stage. Antigua Guatemala.
craftsmen living in Guatemala City and other in Antigua, we can say, not with- [Photo: Alejandro Rojas Garcia.]
took advantage of the periods of training out pride, that Guatemala is now able to
Restoration of polychrome wood sculptures :
that coincided with our visits in order to confront (and even solve) its problems in the removal of extra layers of paint so as to
train their own personnel ; the other the conservation of its cultural heritage bring to light the original polychrome.
started its operations with the people without the need to rely on foreign ex- [Photo; Alejandro Rojas Garcia.]

58. Recent uduances
Gloria Zea de Uribe ìn Colombìun museoloa
Degrec in philosophy and literature from the Until the early 1970s, the concept of museums in Colombia date back to the
Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá. Professor in museology in Colombia was merely a ro- Botanic Expedition in 1783 and many
the Department of the Humanities at this alert minds promoted the creation of cul-
mantic idea. Even though there were al-
university. Director of the Museum of Modern
Art, Bogotá, since 1969. Director of the ready many museums, few of them actu- tural centres during the nineteenth cen-
Colombian Institute of Culture since 1974. ally deserved that name, because of their tury, most of these institutions were
Director of the Foundation Universidad de Los limited collections and the passivity of founded after 1950. More than 70 per
Andes-Nueva York. Chairman of the the role they played in the dissemination cent of the museums operating in the
Programming Board of the National Radio and
of culture. This deplorable situation was country, at least those that now have ties
Television Institute. Former member of the
Directory Board of the Universidad de Los Andes due mainly to the absence of a clear policy with the Colombian Institute of Culture
‘
and of the International Council of the Museum on the part of the responsible government (Colcultura) were established in the se-
of Modern Art, New York. Author of Hacia m a agencies and a severe lack of qualified cond half of this century.‘
iiueuu cultura colombiana, Bogotá, Instituto
personnel at all levels of institutional It was clearly necessary to organize
Colombiano de Cultura, 1978.
organization and management. these museums adequately. The rich cul-
Furthermore, even though the first tural heritage collected in previous dec-
ades, representing the pre-Hispanic past
and the colonial and republican periods,
was gradually being scattered and lost.
There was a pressing need for a profes-
sionalization that would make it possible
to bring together and disseminate this ~
legacy according to the most appropriate
museological standards. The country’s
narrow definition of the museum concept
had to be broadened to include historical
parks and monuments. Likewise, the
strong interest in the work of contempor-
ary Colombian artists, as well as their
outstanding position in Latin American
and international art, made it even more
urgent that those in charge of the
museums holding contemporary art be
given proper professional training. Policy
decisions were also necessary so that the
Colombian people might see and enjoy
the achievements of the graphic arts to-
day. Within this diverse field of action
and given the country’s economic cir-
cumstances, the Colombian Institute of
Culture decided to study the situation of
the museums at that time, in order to
proceed on the basis of firm data and es-
tablish working priorities. Consequently,
the concept of the museum was extended
to include those institutions that did not
yet enjoy the corresponding benefits. A
broad programme was thus developed to
restore and present archaeological sites,
colonial churches and civil structures, etc.
Nineteenth-century painting, An inventory and catalogue were
Museo Nacional, Bogotá. prepared of the cultural heritage in the
[Photo; Museo Nacional, Bogotá.] different regions of the country.
Points o departure
f
1. Jorge Betancur and Sebastián Romero, Lus
museus en Glombia, diagnóstico de lu situación actual, A conference was also held on the theme
Bogotá, Colcultura, 1979. ‘Museology and Cultural Heritage’, with

59. Recent advances in Colombian museology 125
MUSEO ARTEMODERNO,
DE .Bogotá.
Inaugural exhibition, 1979.
[Photo: 0 Oscar Monsalve.]
the co-operation of the Instituto Italo-
Latinoamericano and within the frame-
work of the UNDPAJnesco Regional
Project for the Cultural Heritage. During
this meeting it was recommended that
the museum be considered ‘a place closely
tied to the socio-environmental context,
where it is possible to acknowledge the
work of man and his relationship to his
environment’.Z This recommendation was
to become the point of departure for
Colcultura’s programmes. The first ini-
tiative was to found a Regional School of
Museology at Bogotá in 1978, whose
workshops and courses have been de-
scribed in preceding articles by F. Lacou- from our independence struggle (por- Following the policy outlined in the
ture and S. Mutal. In the country itself traits, uniforms, weapons, insignia, and Unesco meeting mentioned above, the
the school soon obtained significant re- paintings of the main battles) and valu- Bogotá Modern Art Museum has concen-
sults. For example, the training of several able iconography linked to Simon Bolí- trated mainly on acquiring contemporary
groups of museum personnel has im- var, the Liberator. Colombian art works, although it
proved standards quite noticeably, as The restructuring of the museum’s frequently extends its radius of action to
evidenced by the fact that public partici- building and collection began in 19 7 6 , encompass the work of Latin American
pation has grown constantly in recent with the collaboration and guidance of artists and, to a lesser extent, art from
years. Given the condition of our historical, artistic and architectural com- other regions of the world. The
museums before 1970, museology in missions. The building was extensively museum’s collection is divided into four
Colombia has taken large strides. As a re- remodelled in order to highlight its orig- departments: painting and sculpture,
sult, national-level importance is now far inal structure and adapt the large rooms drawing and prints, design and architec-
more readily accorded to the protection for display purposes. The collection was ture, and photography, films and video.
of our cultural values and to the free dis- reorganized so as to exploit fully its great Each division organizes exhibitions to il-
semination and circulation of visual ex- didactic potential. It was divided up lustrate some trend or characteristic of
pression. Colombian museums are now chronologically, making it possible to contemporary art. At the same time, the
working actively in shaping our own visualize Colombia’s historical develop- museum supplements its dissemination
cultural profile. The regional emphasis ment up to the early years of this century. $forts by presenting to the Colombian
of their programmes is no doubt largely Since its reinauguration in 1978, the public exhibitions of the great twentieth
responsible for this rate of progress. National Museum has also sponsored a century masters.
Specific mention deserves to be made series of exhibitions that bring out the Furthermore, since 1975 the Bogotá
here of the restructuring of the National value of certain artistic trends or specific Modern Art Museum has been concerned
Museum, the activities carried out by the moments in Colombia’s history: An Edu- with holding ‘anthological’ exhibitions
Bogotá Modern Art Museum, in al its l cation Department has been created so as that emphasize the different traditions in
departments, and the creation of the to reach out to children and students, Colombian art, thus encouraging the
Union of Latin American and Caribbean aiming to disseminate the valuable ma- study of our history and the recognition
Museums (UMLAC). terial in its collection and present it in an of those coincidences that shape the artis-
attractive and convincing way that be- tic tradition of a country. Shows such as
Restrzccturivzg the Nutionur! comes meaningful for the community. Ldndscupa 1 9 O 0-1 9 7 5 , Art und Po1ìtìcs7
Museum and Histo? of Pbotogrupby in Colonzbia
Bogotá Moderfz Art Museum have been the excellent results of this
On 28 July 182 3 the Colombian Congress type of research, and they confirm the
issued a decree creating the National The Bogotá Modern Art Museum is en- continuity of interest in visual expression
Museum, but only in August 1946 was tirely different. It is a private organization that runs through our history. In addi-
this institution installed in the Panóp- closely tied to Colcultura, and it is now tion to this type of exhibition, which
t i c e a spacious building dating from one of the most prominent institutions of demonstrates the importance the mu-
the middle of the nineteenth century- its kind in Latin America. Founded in seum attaches to the study and analysis
where it is now located. The museum’s 1954 , the museum moved several times of Colombian society, the institute has
collection is made up mainly of before the first part of its own building
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century was inaugurated in 1979. The second 2 . hfusealagí~ pat&”ìa
y cultural: crÍticar y
Colombian art. It also holds memorabilia part is now under construction. perspectiffus, Lima, Unesco, 1981.

60. I 26 Gloria Zea de Uribe
The Nariño, Bolívar and Santander Room
in the Museo Nacional.
[Photo: Museo Nacional, Bogotá.]
MUSEO NACIONAL, Bogotá. Façade.
[Photo: Museo Nacional, Bogotá.]
an Education Department whose didactic mit the adequate implementation of the
projects support area programmes, which functions that are inherent in dissemina-
have been well received by both school- tion, conservation, research and educa-
age children and college students. tion in the field of the visual arts in the
The success of the Bogotá Modern Art Latin American and Caribbean region, by
Museum is the result of efforts made in means of the establishment of a circuit
common by dderent segments of the for travelling exhibitions. Bogotá was
Colombian community (government, chosen as first headquarters of the Union
private enterprise, artists, students, etc.)., de Museos Latinoamericanos y del Caribe
The country had no earlier tradition with (UMLAC).
respect to the creation of institutions of During the three years of its existence,
this type and in this particular way, so the UMLAC has not only cemented relation-
success of this venture is truly an achieve- ships among institutions in the area but
ment from the museological standpoint." has also made it possible to establish an
artistic information centre for Latin Am-
erica, which operates from Venezuela's
UMLAC: regional co-operation National Gallery. It is now organizing
The high costs involved in travelling ex- the first tqavelling exhibition, structured
hibitions isolate not only Colombia but by common agreement and with the co-
all Latin American countries from the operation of all member museums : Land-
great developments of international art. scdpa in Nineteenth-ce?itu?yLatin Americati
They also make it difficult to promote the Pdidng. This will begin its tour of the
dissemination of cultural values beyond participating Union museums in 1983 ,
the borders of country or continent. The and it will include the most prominent
idea of creating an organization that paintings of this type and period from
would enable the museums in the area to fifteen countries. For the first time it will
work together emerged from an aware- be possible to appreciate as a whole a type
ness of these problems. But the main of artistic expression that was common to
force that led to the execution of this many Latin American countries.
ambitious project was undeniably the
common desire of the different Latin [Tmnslated fionz Spanish]
American countries to strengthen their
ties and learn more about their cultural
heritage by means of exhibitions originat-
ing in Latin America, with Latin Ameri-
can materials, and conceived and or-
ganized with the public of the continent 3 . Eduardo Serrano, Recuento d zllz esfUerzo
e
conjzuito, Bogotá, Museo de Arte Moderno, 1979.
in mind. In November 1978, Argentina, 4. La Tertulia Museum, Cali, and the recently
Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, inaugurated Medellin Modern Art Museum also
Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia operate in this way.
5 . Union de museos htinonmwicai2os y del Caribe,
signed an agreement to 'carry out actions fitatutos, Personería Jurídca, p. 3 , Bogotá,
of co-operation and exchange which per- Colcultura, 1979.

61. .
Frances Kay Brinkley
Born in the United States of America and has
w-----
Puerto Rico
5 Anguilla
St Croix St Kitts %Barbuda
.c
lived for twenty-four years in the West Indies. œAntigua
Studied French, Spanish, ancient and medieval 4 Montserrat
history, history of art and creative writing.
Curator of Carriacou Museum. Now working at
the Barbados Museum as special assistant. Several
e ‘ Guadeloupe
Marie-Galante
Dominica
publications on Grenada and Carriacou.
% Martinique
4 St Lucia
The eastern Curìbbeun .
a, Curaçao
)Bonaire
-.a . a
St Vincent
Isla de Margarita
7
4
I Grenada
/Tobago
Trinidad
b
Barbados
u museum on every ìslund
Venezuela
4
Few people, even in the Lutin Aiilerìcaiz re- ruins and a luxury hotel. In the upper part of which a hotel. Very much earlier
gìon, kt2uw much about the islands of the town, reached by a precipitous road, are a part of it had been the local gaol. This
Lesser Antilles iiz the eastesn Caiibbeun, let Fort Oranje (now housing the post office, fascinating building was threatened with
alone of the ?nuseu?ns that have Spruizg ztp the tLx office, and the administration being torn down to make way for a park-
these in recent years. But as shown by this office), the walls and tower of the Dutch ing lot when some people interested in
brìtf overview y Frances Kuy Brìnklty,
!
. Reformed Church, consecrated in 175 5 , history stepped in and asked the govern-
people’s interest ìpz preserving und displuying the skeleton of the mid-eighteenth cen- ment to make it a museum. They formed
their herìtuge i us ulìve here us unywhese-
s tury synagogue Honen Dalin, and a half a Museum Committee, with a govern-
und ìn as much need of attention dnd support. dozen or so beautiful eighteenth-century ment representative sitting on it. Later on
houses, some still inhabited. the Grenada Historical Society was
The Netherlands Government has
I formed, one of its responsibilities being
Between 1974 and 1979 there was an been good to the foundation in furnish- the operation of the museum.
explosion of small museums in the Lesser ing the building for the museum, in Because it is a national museum its
Antilles, among them-St Eustatius, financing Hartog’s Histoty o St Eustutius,
f collections vary a great deal. At the be-
Grenada, Montserrat, Carriacou, Tobago, and in protecting its monuments. The ginning Amerindian artefacts, old docu-
St Vincent, Marie-Galante. Their diver- foundation is also fortunate in being able ments and maps, sugar machinery, Afri-
sity is enormous, their premises range to keep the museum open seven days a can weapons, nutmegs and cocoa, and
from sugar mills to coffin shops, their week, mornings and afternoons, by a English stoneware stood cheek by jowl.
collections from Amerindian artefacts to volunteer staff of ‘Statians’ and retired ex- The time came when it became obvious
children’s games. patriates. the museum had to be rearranged, with
Last November they took pride in a regard to the limits of space and the
St Eustutius: ureu 30.6 km2, visit from the Queen of the Netherlands, number of exhibits for display. The com-
population 1,600. whom they drove around the cobblestone mittee, who were mostly foreign residents
streets of Oranjestad in an antique car- and amateurs, realized the problem, but
First on the scene was the St Eustatius riage. Many projects are now being could see no solution.
Museum, on 16 November 1974. This prepared : documentation of the mu- Fortuitously, the answer dropped out
was a very quick operation, as a Historical seum’s collections, tape recordings of old of the blue. Last year one of the students
Foundation was formed only in March of people’s memories, a minimal restoration at the American Medical School in Gre-
that year. The building is a good example of the Dutch Reformed Church so it can nada had a wife who was a product of
of Dutch Windward Islands architecture, be used for foundation meetings. the Smithsonian Institute. The museum
particularly in its simple detail work. It is Possibly because it is the least popu- hired her to help them out of their
a one-storey house, constructed mainly in lated island, with little going on, history dilemma. Owing to her background, she
wood on the foundations of an eight- as a fascination and an integral part of was superbly competent. After a period of
eenth-century building, making for a very people’s lives has gained a firm foothold. study and consultation, with a minimum
attractive museum. This is a great advantage to the museum. of expenditure, she rearranged the
But the whole town of Oranjestad, the exhibits to give a logical progression and
only one on the island, could be called a Grenu& :area 3 1 1 k d , the maximum space for visitors to move
museum. The foundation distributes a about in.
popuzution 100,000
walking-tour map of the upper and lower This work was not complete when she
town. In the lower town are the former The Grenada National Museum opened had to return to the United States.
customs office, now the power plant, and its doors on 9 April 1976, in a building However, it is now possible, since the
eighteenth-century warehouses, some part of which had last been a warehouse, committee has learned the method, for

62. 128 Frances Kay Brinkley
Artist’s view of the Grenada National on display and in store was established, Tobago: area 300 km2,
Museum. and the names of useful journals and off-
[Drawing: Robert P. Cunningham.] populutìon 40,000
island sources of Montserrat history
provided. The Museum of Tobago History opened.
The National Trust is a non-govern- on 11 February 1977. Ir is housed in a
mental organization, depending mainly small building especially designed for the
on membership dues and private contri- purpose and leased at a nominal rent?
butions, but the CCA gave assistance in The Mount Irvine Museum Trust, a
establishing the museum, the various non-commercial charitable organization,
government departments co-operate worked four years to prepare the mu-
when their help is requested, and the seum. Its main purpose is to assist in the
Tourist Board has allotted development education of the younger generation.
funds. Thus the exhibits range from a geolog-
In the winter of 1980 a display most ical section, through relics of the island’s
enchanting to children (and the child in history, with the various Spanish, French,
every adult) was completed. This is a Dutch and English occupations, to
working-scale model of a sugar mill. It examples of shells and marine life.
includes a boiling house and little figures The trust is carrying out an ambitious
of the workers carrying cane to the mill, publications programme-a series of
manning the rollers in the mill, and lad- mimeographed pamphlets on various
ling sugar in the boiling house. With events in Tobago’s history. These fulfil a
marvellous ingenuity the sails and rollers double purpose-education and an addi-
of the windmill are powered by a motor tion to the museum’s income. They cover
from an electric rotisserie, and some of such topics as a 1647 land lease, the naval
them to continue the work. This will be the gears are hand-carved from ice-hockey battles of Rockly Bay, the earliest reports
di&cult, as some of the foreign residents pucks. As a member of their council put about the island, the first colonization by
who worked so hard for the museum it: ‘Who needs ice-hockey pucks in the the Dutch. These are of high standard,
have left, and also because the museum Caribbean ?’ and a welcome addition to a regional
has depended a great deal financially on As this illustration shows, the growth history.
entrance fees paid by visitors from abroad, and development of the Montserrat
who are now fewer. However, the com- Museum are in good hands. St Vincent: area 298 km2,
mittee remains determined to cherish populution ~00,000
Grenada’s mementos of the past and pre- Curriacou: areu 34 km2,
serve them. The St Vincent Museum came into being
populution 5,000 on 9 August 1979. The opening cere-
Montserrat: ureu 100 km2, The Carriacou Historical Society opened mony was attended by, besides the local
its first museum in August 1976, in the and foreign luminaries, a group of
population 13,000 storage room of a rum shop. It soon schoolchildren of Carib descent. This was
Less than a month after Grenada, on moved to larger premises-a building the culmination of the seven years of
4 May 1976, the Museum of the Mont- last used as a coffin shop? work begun by the National Trust once
serrat National Trust opened. With great The museum, although small, is said the building, a cottage in the Botanical
imagination they converted an eight- to have the most representative Amerin- Gardens, was acquired.’
eenth-century windmill on an old sugar dian collection in the West Indies. The The original idea may have been to
estate into two rooms of exhibits, plus a European section contains china and glass have a national museum, but when the
reading room. Everything displayed was shards, some partly reconstructed, from Amerindian collections of the Archae-
found or used in Montserrat.’ the ruins of the old French and English ological and Historical Society members
A Committee of the National Trust, great houses. The African section pos- were handed over to the trust it was
which includes a member of the Montser- sesses two of the ‘big drums’ used in the found that they alone would more than
rat Government, operates the museum. famous Carriacou ‘Nation Dances’, a fill the building. So the St Vincent
Early on they were blessed by learning unique heritage of almost unchanged Af- Museum became specifically a museum of
through the Carribean Conservation As- rican tribal dances. Amerindian archaeology. To publicize
sociation (CCA) of an assistance pro- The museum is supported by mem- this the government put out an issue of
gramme available to West Indian mu- bership dues both from local and from stamps, ‘Carib Artefacts’.
seums through West Indian Museum As- foreign members. A lone tourist ship, An intriguing addition to the museum
sociates, located in the Virgin Islands of which used to call for a morning fort-
1. Most objects were donated or loaned, so
the United States. So, before opening, nightly during the winter, was a welcome purchases amounted to less than US$37.
they benefited from a visit by the late Dr extra source of income, but this no 2 . In its m e n months at the first location the
Marcus Buchanan, president of the above longer comes. The dwindling of visitors museum spent $133 in d; its first year at its
in
second home only $633.
organization. and the departure of many of the officers 3 . The rent is 40 cents per year. But the
On his advice a Museum Acquisitions and members of the Executive Com- purchase of the artefact collection and fitting out
Committee was formed to receive and mittee are hurting the museum in both the museum were ‘expensive’ : $15,437 and
$4,276 respectively!
document items given or loaned to the its morale and its pocket. (See also de- 4 . The total cost involved in opening this
museum, an index file covering all items scription on pages 80-81 .) museum was $~O,OOO.

63. The eastern Caribbean: a museum on everv island I29
is an ‘Indian garden’ outside, where are who created and run these museums, and institutional networking ; insufficient fund-
grown most of the’plants used by the an empathy for the effort they put into ing; insdcient public education and out-
Amerindians. them, could spend two or three months reach ; inadequate legislation ; shortages of es-
a t each museum-the Caribbean Conser- sential human resources and skills ;insufficient
technical information ; lack of professional
Marie-Galante: area 246 km2, vation Association would be an ideal base
contact with regional counterparts ; lack of
for such a person-teaching the tech-
population 2 0,000 niques of cataloguing, documentation,
national policy guidelines and machinery ; lack
of active government involvement ; lack of es-
The Ecomuseum of Marie-Galante, and display. This would be a giant step tablished priorities ; lack of orientation to
which opened in 1979, has been de- towards assuring their continuation. local peoples and needs.
scribed by Gérard Collomb and Yves Re-
nard (see p. 109). The ideas tried o u t
here as well as the innovations introduced
should contribute much to the cultural A paper entitled ‘Towards a Plaizning Strategy
for the Nanagement of HistoricallCultural
life of the Caribbean.
Resources Critical to Development in the Lesser
Antilles’, prepared iii 1979 Edward L. Towle,
Szcruival based on minimdl Praidmt o the Islaizd Resources Faundath,
f
requirmzeats azd George F. T s n Director of the Foiozda-
yo,
tion’s Histoy and Culture Programnzes, assessa
These varied operations prove that it these museum activities as follows :
is not necessary to have a large, well- MONSERUT TRUST
NATIONAL MUSEUM.
While it does appear.. . that the level of activ- The converted windmill.
educated population or a tremendous [Photo: Monserrat National Trust Museum.]
amount of funds to open a museum. ity is considerable, and that nearly all of the
Each of them, in its own way, has added islands have at least one cultural resource
utilization project under way, it should be
to the cultural wealth of the people of its
pointed out that most of these projects are
island, and is preventing further loss of small in size and scope and not well planned,
traditions and historical objects. All, in well staffed or well funded. Moreover, it is
one way or another, are seeking to attract noteworthy that few of them are government
young people, to give them a knowledge activities, and those that are, most notably the
of their past that will help them to be archives, continue to remain seriously
self-assured in whatever country they may neglected in most of the islands. Generally
find themselves. speaking, the site-specific cultural resource
For continued progress, whether they utilization efforts currently operational in the
are funded privately, publicly, or by a eastern Caribbean can be said to suffer from
mixture of both, they all need more several notable deficiencies, which must be
remedied if these small islands are to gain
money. Also, they all suffer from a lack of
maximum benefits from these resources for
space and qualified personnel. The space local people. These deficiences include : lack of
problem could be solved by more funds. comprehensive, integrative planning ; lack of
The personnel problem is not necessarily linkages with tourism, education and com-
complicated. A qualified museologist munity development programmes ;weakness of
with an understanding of the amateurs local infrastructures ; information gaps ; poor
The working model of a sugar-mill in the
Monserrat National Trust Museum.
[Photo: Monserrat National Trust Museum.]
GRENADA NATIONAL MUSEUM.
Amerindian exhibits.
[Photo: Jim Rudin, Grenada National
Museum.]

64. The Museum of Hummu:
Eusebio Leal Spengler
Degree in history. Author of numerous essays,
articles and studies in history and museology;
visiting professor in various European and Latin
The Plaza de Armas, Havana. A particularly American universities. Has given lectures and
important item in the legacy of the talks on topics in his special field in museums
eighteenth century is the Governor's and to foreign scientific associations. Since 1967,
Residence, silhouetted in the background ; he has been Director of the Museum of Havana
the luminous circle is the face of the clock and City Historian. At present he holds the post
that has counted the finest hours of the of Executive Secretary to the National Working
country's history. In the centre, the statue Group for Old Havana. He is a member of the
of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo, Governing Board of the Latin American
Founding Father and First President of the Co-operation Centre in Spain. He has received
Armed Republic. numerous decorations and honours.
Gallery on the first floor: patterns of light
and shadow in one of the most attractive
inner galleries in Cuba.
[Photo: Museum of Havana.]
MUSEO HABANA.
DE Cloistered courtyard of
the Palacio de los Capitanos Generales
(1776-91), present site of the office of the
City Historian and the Museum of Havana.
In the centre, the statue of Christopher
Columbus.
[Photo; Fernando Lezcano, Granma.]

65. When restoration began in 1969 and
mirror o u c ì 9
f subsequently transformed them, the large
rooms in the palace looked like this.
Moreover, virtually no works of art from its
original collections had survived.
[Photo: hfuseum of Havana.]
Two hundred and six years have elapsed This wealth of experience, acquired
since, in 1776, the military engineer through research into documents, ar-
Francisco Fernández de Trevejos y Zaldí- chaeology and building techniques,
var laid the foundations of the Govern- enabled us to carry out a successful ex-
ment Headquarters, Meeting House and periment, on the basis of which we can
Gaol of Havana. Over time the edifice claim categorically: ‘We did not create
came to be known only as the Palacio de the museum ; it created us.’
los Capitanes Generales. Within the pre- To recover the history of our capital
cincts of this 6,5 00 -square-metre build- and to attempt to express its essence in
ing in the Plaza de Armas the most im- the museum’s displays were not easy
portant events in the history of Cuba tasks. They involved finding suitable
took place. It witnessed the rise and fall forms of museological expression, given
of Spanish colonial rule (179 1-1 89 8 ) ; the requirements and conditions imposed
foreign rule by the United States of Am- by an old building, which also has its
erica from 1899 to 1902 and again in own history. Solving the practical prob-
1906-1908, and the Republic, 1902- lems took more than fifteen years of
1920. It was then the Town Hall of Ha- work.
vana without a break until the victory of
the Cuban Revolution on 1 January
Educational work.
1959.
The museum has developed an energetic
educational approach, remaining selective
The buìldìq and its restoration in the choice of exhibits so as to fulfil its
This building, especially the cloister set central function of showing the role of
off by a garden of delicately scented flow- the city and its inhabitants, over the cen-
ers, epitomized the national identity that turies, in the history of the nation.
was beginning to change the face of the At the same time, the museum has be-
economy, social and political attitudes, come a research and cultural centre, a
creativity and Creole culture at the end of forum for the concerns and interests of
the Age of Enlightenment. It bears the our people, which strives to attract young
stamp of the architecture of southern and old alike, and especially children.
Spain, strongly influenced by Moorish ar- Every year we organize drama festivals,
chitecture. puppet shows, concerts and literary
W e have had to work hard over the circles, and on Saturdays we have a major
past sixteen years on the restoration of public function that has become famous :
this building. Both time and mankind craftsmen of all kinds gather in the square
had wrought sometimes irreparable dam- near the museum and in the old quarters
age to its structure and decorative of Havana. These are some of the ways in
features. W e inherited only a public which the museum stays alive and abreast
office, full of air-conditioning equipment, of the contemporary scene.
cubicles and files. Today we are witnessing another
The search for the plans took us into phenomenon whose significance extends
the oldest and most distinguished Span- beyond its immediate context. Restor-
ish archives. Archaeological excavations ation work has begun on the historic In the old stables, coaches and carriages are
methodically uncovered the foundations centre of Havana. Streets and houses are now on display, together with a host of
of Spanish buildings dating from before beginning to recover their original ap- objects that evoke the atmosphere of the
city at various times in the past.
the eighteenth century, the main parish pearance, both movable and immovable [Photo: Museum of Havana.]
church of the town (1555-1574), the objects rescued from the danger of de-
tombs of countless people buried in that struction or export. In a sense it is a The rich potential and the destiny of the
church and traces of the indigenous com- process of ‘demuseumizing’: the museum Cuban nation are clearly apparent in the
munity in the throes of cultural transi- no longer belongs to the city, but the city history rooms, the most important of which
is the flag room, a veritable Pantheon,
tion, together with Spanish and Ameri- begins to belong to the museum. where, protected and carefully preserved, are
can enamelled pottery. These enabled us The city-alive, inhabited, hard-work- the battle standards of the Liberation Army.
to determine with precision a number of ing and beautiful-should find in the [Photo: Museum of Havana.]
details of trade and daily life in the capital museum its mirror image.
of Cuba, even before it was founded near
the port of the same name in 15 19.

66. RETURN A N D RESTITUTION OF
CULTURAL PROPERTY
Rodrigo Pallares Zaldumbide
Casesfor restitatiotz
A priority concern of our cultural institutions pected of illegal trafficking in cultural pro- legal problem, which was that before any legal
today must be to prevent objects belonging to perty, to be present when the luggage was action could be taken it had to be proved that
the national heritage from leaving the coun- inspected. The crates were very large, and out the objects had left Ecuador since the law pro-
try, and to ensure that objects so removed are of the first came furniture, crockery, craft- hibiting their export had been passed. This
returned. In the attempt to achieve these ware, books and other objects which it was by was impossible in most cases, since ir was not
aims, battles are won, some more easily than no means illegal to export. The inspection usually known when or how they had left the
others, or lost overwhelmingly. Alternatively, took so long that the second crate had to be country.
there may be bitter legal wrangles lasting for left until the next day. When on the second
years, during which one never loses one’s day there was still no incriminating evidence,
fighting spirit and one’s faith in a successful the ambassador grew more and more indig-
A battle we must win
outcome. Three examples clearly illustrate nant, the representative of the Chancery Pro- At the end of 1974 I received a letter from
cases such as these. tocol Department more and more uneasy and the Director of the Museum of the Central
the Institute official more and more dismayed. Bank, enclosing a cutting from the Italian
An example of total success Only on the third day, at the bottom of the magazine qoca, No. 1244, the September
third crate, did they discover eighty large issue of that year. It was a copiously illus-
In November 1978 the Head Office of Ecu- boxes containing 910 objects : archaeological trated article about a collection made up of
ador’s Instituto de Patrimonio Cultural re- artefacts, paintings and sculptures from the some twelve thousand Ecuadorian archaeolog-
ceived a tip off by telephone from a person colonial period. ical objects belonging to one Giuseppe Salo-
known to be reliable, who said that he lived The whole collection was confiscated, and mone. The photographs showed beautiful ce-
opposite a senior official in a European em- detailed information was given in the press, ramic vessels and figurines and also a number
bassy. This official was about to return to his but no names were mentioned, out of con- of sophisticatedmodels displaying, as in a man-
country and had forwarded to the customs sideration for the country concerned and its nequin parade, masks, earrings, bracelets, pec-
ceived a tip off by telephone from a person ambassador. torals and other gold jewellery used for cere-
known to be reliable, who said that he lived monial purposes in ancient civilizations that
which, according to the informant, contained had once existed on what is now Ecuadorian
a large number of Ecuadorian works of art
Failures territory.
whose export was forbidden. On several occasions when it was found that Explaining how he had come to acquire
In compliance with the law on diplomatic Ecuadorian archaeological objects were being such a fabulous collection, Salomone, who
immunity and with the co-operation of the sold in art galleries in Europe and the United was not a rich man but a sometime salesman
Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of the States of America, efforts were made with the and sailor, said that he had spent many years
government, we requested the ambassador, help of our embassies there to have them re- travelling and prospecting in the Republic of
who was the superior of the diplomat sus- turned. Unfortunately we came up against a Ecuador, buying archaeological objects either
The Minister of Finance of Ecuador,
accompanied by the author, inspecting some
of the 910 items of cultural property
confiscated in 1978 in from the
unaccompanied luggage of a European
diplomat.
[Photo: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio
Cultural, Quito.]

67. Return and restitution of cultural property I33
from local dealers (huqaems) or from middle- and won the case after a trial which was
men. He even spoke of personal archaeolog- promptly and rapidly dispatched, a very
ical excavations. And, so imbued was he with different matter from the sluggish proceedings
his own celebrity, he began describing his of the suit filed by the Ecuadorian Govern-
own life with the words: ‘I was born in 1942, ment. The fact is that in nearly all countries,
in Piedmont, in a family of farmers.’ wen when they have ratified the 1970 Unesco
On seeing that date, I thought that at last convention on the means of prohibiting and
we would be able to prove that a priceless preventing the illicit import, export and
archaeological collection had left Ecuador il- transfer of ownership of cultural prop-
legally when there were already laws prohibit- erty, the law treats the illicit import of cul-
ing it. However precocious was this Salo- tural property in the same way as the illicit
mone, born in Piedmont in 1942, he could import of any other product. Very often
never have started his predatory traftic before judges will be more lenient towards people Rodrigo Pallares Zaldumbide
1945, which was when the law on the artistic trading illicitly in cultural property than
heritage was passed, since he was not even towards those smuggling spirits or cigarettes. Born in 1925 in Quito. Degree in engineering
three years old at the time. When, as representative of the Govern- from the Universidad Central, 1947. Architectural
This was the background against which a ment of Ecuador, I attended the first meeting studies on a French Government scholarship at
court action was begun in Italy for the pur- of the Intergovernmental Committee for the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 1948-49.
Director, Dirección Nacional de Pauimonio
pose of recovering thq collection. The Prefect Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to
Artístico, 1973-78. Director of the Instituto
and Attorney-General of the Milan Magistra- its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural since 1978. Has
ture were informed of the affáir, and since the Case of Illicit Appropriation, I presented the participated in numerous international meetings.
objects were stored in a small town not far case, beginning my account as follows : Organized the First New World Conference on
from Turin they handed the case over to an The unconditional return of cultural property to its Rescue Archaeology in Quito in May 1981.
examining magistrate there. The latter or- countries of origin will be one of the most delicate
dered the placing under court custody, with and difficult issues to resolve in the course of this
Salomone held responsible as ‘guardian’, of committee’s deliberations. However, there are cases
the almost ten thousand pieces that were actu- in which unconditional restitution is the only ac-
ally found at his home and at the Manzoni ceptable, genuine and fair solution, as for instance Reproduction of a photograph from the
Gallery in Milan, where an exhibition was be- when the claimant country proves that its cultural magazine Epoca, No. 1244, September
property was exported in defiance of customs regu- 1974, showing a mannequin decked out
ing prepared.
lations, when laws prohibiting its export were al- in ceremonial archaeological ornaments
As a result of these measures, Salomone ready in force.
found himself in prison, paradoxically belonging to the collection smuggled out
On behalf of the Government of Ecuador, I wish of Ecuador.
enough, not for illegal traffic in cultural prop- to inform the committee of a case of this kind. [Photo: Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio
erty, but for being in possession of firearms Some of the facts of the case will provide an impor- Cultural, Quito.]
which were discovered in his home when the tant frame of reference that will certainly help the
police carried out their search ! committee to adopt more constructive resolutions,
Since then, the Ecuadorian Government and other governments to find solutions to similar
has waged a long and expensive legal battle. problems.
The case has been delayed by technicalities Having examined the case made by our
and the repeated non-appearance of Salomone, government and recognizing that it was ob-
whose real name turned out to be Giuseppe viously difficult for the Italian Government to
Danusso and who had adopted his mother’s intervene in a case that was sub jadice, the
name after having been declared bankrupt. At committee welcomed the positive stance on
one formal interrogation he even admitted : ‘I the matter taken by the Italian representative.
know that the export of archaeological objects Late in 1980 in fact the proceedings, which
from Ecuador is prohibited.. . I do not intend had been at a standstill, were speeded up. The
to give the names of the persons from whom judges decided to give our consul in Turin
I bought the archaeological objects so that ‘legal custody’ of the ten thousand archae-
they could be brought to justice in their ological objects. This we regard as a major
country.. . I am keeping the gold mask in a victory for the Ecuadorian cause, as it was an
safe in a New York bank which I do not art dealer and associate of Danusso’s who had
intend to name.’ Despite these admissions of previously had custody. The consul organized
guilt, however, the case has dragged on for the inventory of the entire collection by Her-
years, and during the last two the main culprit nán Crespo-Toral and Dr Rosa Petrucci of the
has disappeared, leaving even his lawyers in Pignorini Museum in Rome, a task which
the dark as to his whereabouts. took fifteen days to complete.
An interesting point to note is that At its second session, the Intergovernmen-
Danusso, alias Salomone, published a sumptu- tal Committee heard once again about the
ous book on Ecuadorian archaeology, illus- case from Ecuador’s Ambassador and Per-
trated with photographs of the offending col- manent Delegate to Unesco, who was also
lection. The Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano one of its Vice-presidents, and from the Per-
(IILA) found that the text had been manent Delegate of Italy to Unesco, who re-
plagiarized from a well-known book by Her- ported on the steps taken by the Italian Min-
nán Crespo-Toral, Director of the Museum of ister of Foreign Affairs to speed up the judicial
Ecuador’s Central Bank. This text has also process. The committee was also informed of
been used in the catalogue of an archaeolog- a special resolution passed by the First New
ical exhibition organized at the IILA’s Head- World Conference on Rescue Archaeology
quarters by the Museum of the Central Bank. held at Quito in May 1981 It subsequently
The ILLA therefore took Danusso to court adopted the following recommendation :

68. Rodrigo Pallares Zaldumbide
The committee takes note of the report by the from Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee, Minister of Justice, to the Italian court which
representative of Ecuador concerning the case of is examining the case and to the Unesco
we are convinced that justice will be done, if Intergovernmental Committee for the
12,000 archaeological objects illicitly exported to belatedly, and that this priceless archaeological Promotion of the Return of Cultural Property
Italy, which is now before the Italian courts; it collection will be returned to its country of to its Countq of Origin or its Restitution in
requests the Chairman to bring its support of the Case of Illicit Appropriation.
origin.
demand of the Government of Ecuador to the at- 2. The editor actually attended the final
tention of the Minister of Justice of the Italian Re-
[Trmdated from Spatiìsh] hearing as an observer, together with the
public. The committee likewise takes note of the Ecuadorian ambassador in Rome and the consuls
statement of the Italian Government on this matter. 1. First N w World Conference on Rescue
e in Turin and Milan. The consul in Turin, an
Archaeology, Special Resolution No. 1: Italian industrialist and newspaper editor, has
Comiduing: That an invaluable part of the been extremely energetic in pursuing the case and
The final hearing in Turin was held on 19 cultural property of Ecuador, comprising some now has the heavy responsibility of the collection,
February 1982 .2 12,000 archaeological items, has been illegally held in safe deposit, which he was kind enough
In Ecuador, various official bodies have exported to Italy by means of an international to show us. The hearing was conducted by the
dealer, despite the clear directives of Ecuadorian President of the Turin Magistrature, Professor
been deeply committed to the case: the Conti, in person, and the statement of the case
law concerning cultural property ; that the
Procuraduria General del Estado (Attorney- Ecuadorian state and people are pledged to the by the Examining Magistrate was extremely clear
General’s Office), the Ministry for Foreign recovery of this property, which is part of their and comprehensive, showing complete
Affairs, the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana CULTURAL hiEhlORY, and for which purpose legislation and of her claim. Delivered a few
(House of Ecuadorian Culture) the Instituto competent authorities undertook legal weeks later, the final judgement declared the
proceedings in the Italian courts which have objects to be ‘the full and exclusive property of
Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural (which has already continued for several years without the Republic of Ecuador’. The court ordered that
taken over from what was previously the being resolved ; that Ecuador has brought this the collection be restituted to its country of
Dirección de Patrimonio Artístico), and the matter to the attention of the relevant origin through the Ecuadorian consul in
Central Bank of Ecuador, which has in fact international organizations and has been Turin.-Ed.
supported in its claims ;
met the legal expenses of the trial in Italy. R ~ o l o e ~ : support and endorse the just request
To
Given the many tokens of solidarity from of the Ecuadorian state and people; and to
the Italian authorities at the highest level, and send a copy of this resolution to the Italian
Mnsenms and the containment
Reina Torres de Araúz o illicit tra@
f
Anyone who has occasion to travel in Latin wantonly shattered by the tomb robbers. to obtain irreplaceable elements from the fa-
America-although some of these countries Steles broken by a drill into various fragments mous ceremonial sites of the great Mayan civi-
are politically disturbed-is struck by their in- are invariably pieced together but with the lization. Panama and Costa Rica, which had
terest in safeguarding their cultural heritage. meaning of the glyphs and the beauty of the an abundance of pre-Columbian gold- and sil-
However, in the face of the increasingly designs for ever eaced. verware constantly in demand on the illicit
keen desire to set up new, specialized mu- It is not only in connection with archae- market, exhibit in their museums pieces
seums, to improve existing ones, to give them ological finds that illicit traffic is rife. In recent selected from among the best and most repre-
adequate staff and specialized laboratories- years colonial art has come into fashion. In sentative of this technique. But these alas do
aspects of museum life in Latin America that Central America over the centuries it has not bear comparison with the magnificent
have been dealt with already-we find a com- taken the form of beautiful altars and retables pieces dug up by tomb-robbers paid by the
mon enemy : illicit traffic in cultural property. with fine polychrome and gilt or ingenuous intermediaries of dealers in pre-Columbian art
Curiously, this evil has increased as the representations of religious scenes ; precious and taken out of the country with the greatest
media have made more widely known the im- objects in everyday use, such as caskets, chests, of ease and frequency.
portance and the value of our cultural prop- cabinets, lacquered and painted with designs
erty. The market has actually expanded. Un- peculiar to the region, not to mention the What cun be done?
til recently the demand came mainly from traditional Andalusian or Extremaduran sil-
North America and Europe. Today, however, verware produced in colonial times by remark- Legislation to protect the cultural heritage is
other d u e n t countries also figure on the list. ably skilled craftsmen. Painting and sculpture, becoming more general throughout the re-
At the same time, although countries with the so-called fine arts, are also affected by this gion. The precept to the effect that the his-
archaeological sites are making it more traffic, less subject to control, harder to detect, torical heritage belongs to the state has come
difficult to obtain permits for research and ex- than the other categories of cultural property into force and is more or less widely recog-
cavation work, or to take art works out of the mentioned above. nized. However, it is not always possible to
country, the audacity of the hrrqueros, the The museums that have been set up in our apply the corresponding legal provisions, ow-
tomb robbers, the gravestone lifters or other region over the years as a result of persevering ing to the limited budgets of the bodies re-
intermediaries, who exist in every one of our efforts are not in a position to show their con- sponsible for exercising control over this heri-
countries and who have means such as heli- temporaries the art works produced by their tage. Today we also have to cope with forms
copters for reaching archaeological sites and historic forebears. Thus, in Central America, of plundering and destruction inconceivable a
sophisticated equipment such as high-speed El Salvador cannot exhibit the sculptures of few years ago. What happened in Tikal, Gua-
drills and saws, seems to know no bounds. the god Xipectotec, which have been re- temala, recently is an example. A commando
These looters sometimes arrive at the sites be- moved-with the help of diplomatic exemp- of guerrillas, opposed to the independence of
fore the archaeologists and on occasion even tions and protections. The collections of Belize, concluded its political demonstrations
contest the right of the latter to dig, or dis- sculpture remaining in Nicaragua today are a with the theft of nine pieces of jade from the
pute their daim to the cultural material. pale reflection of the beautiful pre-Columbian valuable collection of the local museum and
There are even private laboratories for restor- sculpture plundered right from the beginning spraying with paint the valuable carvings and
ation work, which adapt to the taste of their of the century by Nicaraguans and foreigners. reliefs of the temples and steles. A term will
clientele the beautiful polychrome ceramics Guatemala and Honduras are still negotiating have to be coined for this type of vandalism,

69. Museums and the containment of illicit traffic 135
which establishes a precedent and, it is to be A stolen ear pendant in gold repousst.. O n
hoped, will not spread to the rest of the this fine piece from the Lambayeque period
world.‘ Poverty makes it extremely difficult at fishing scenes surround a central motif
present to control the traffic and to apply the showing a bird, a fish and a pond. Edge
decorated with small welded gold beads.
existing laws. The cases of detection followed
Length of stem: 10.8 cm; diameter of disc:
by legal action and recovery of the material do 10.6 cm; weight: 5 8 g. Reg. no. M-2896.
not represent even 10 per cent of the dramatic [Photo: Instituto Nacional de Cultura,
quantity of works that find their way into pri- Peru.] D
vate collections or even museums.
However, there is a type of situation we
think ought to be transformed. I have in
mind the permits granted and the sales Stolen Chimu period vase in silver with
gold applications. Decorated with neck and
effected during the first half of this century tail of a bird. Maximum height : 13 cm ;
when our countries did not have the protec- diameter of opening: 9.9 cm ; weight :
tive legislation they have today-or the staff 237 g. Reg. no. M - 4 3 8 4 .
and institutions for the safeguarding of the [Photo: Instituto Nacional de Cultura,
cultural heritage. Permits for excavation and Peru.]
distribution of the finds were granted to a
scientific institution, which could then con-
tact at leisure the owners of the land where
the excavations were carried out, outside the
general arrangements made with the govern-
mental authorities. All this had two con-
sequences : the implementation of a govern-
ment permit for scientific research, on the one
hand, and a contract or verbal agreement with
the owner of the land concerning the usufruct
or distribution of any finds, on the other.
Such was the case with the famous archae-
ological site known as Sitio Conte in Panama.
Two eminent United States universities par-
ticipated in the excavations; an extraordinary
- wealth of gold, emeralds and cultural treasures
found on the site went almost entirely into
I the collections of their museums and the
coffers of the families who owned the land. rights and obligations in regard to that heri- sixty years have been lying in its reserve col-
It seems to us that the time has come not tage; by conducting research in the different lection might, if not as a whole at least in
only to implement legal measures to check fields covered by the national heritage and part, be exhibited and made known to the
illicit t r f i c in cultural property, but also to making known the results.2 public in its country of origin.
revise those permits or agreements that were Of course this will take at least a gener- In the meantime, we shall conclude with
granted to or concluded with museums or ation, if not two. Nevertheless, we have al- the reply received from the curator of a
universities in the past when o,ur countries ready begun to see the results of such ac- United States museum whose authorities
had neither the human nor the technical re- tion-albeit limited-on the part of the refused to enter into negotiations with a view
sources required for evaluating the material museums, and we no longer have any doubt to handing over a part of the considerable cul-
excavated. that with the backing of the educational insti- tural heritage from our small country kept
tutions and the mass communication media there: ‘Your country will doubtless be proud
Some tusks for musezms the ultimate aim will be reached in the near to know that its pre-Columbian artistic
future. wealth is exhibited in a large museum in a
We know that it is not by coercion or repress- While this public awareness campaign is large North American city.’ To this we re-
ive measures that our countries-or any under way, the appropriate state institutions torted: ‘It would be a great honour and only
others whose cultural heritage continues to can, and should, undertake programmes or right for us to be able to exhibit in our small
be plundered-are going to be able to check missions, at the highest diplomatic level if museums this artistic wealth made by our
illicit traffic. Few of these countries, if any, need be, to recover that cultural property of a forebears in which the Panamanians of today
have the means of exercising effective control unique character that should rightly be on can justifiably take pride.’
or taking legal action in more than a rare view for the people whose forebears, at some [ Tmdated fionz Spanish]
number of cases. The only answer is educa- point in history, produced it. Such claims can 1. The senseless destruction of cultural
tion: both formal and non-formal as dis- be based on the international conventions property as a result of armed conflict, including
pensed by the mass media, which are so adopted by Unesco and the OAS or the vari- terrorism, has become a serious problem in
many parts of the world. Vandalism and
powerful today. ous actions launched or recommended by pillage-without illicit t r a c as a necessary
The museums themselves undoubtedly them. In some cases there has already been a objective-have been added to the dangers that
have an important part to play in this educa- response, for example the return by Guate- threaten museum collections. Unesco is now
tional programme : through the instructive mala to Panama of a pre-Columbian gold col- examining ways in which it might intervene in
such cases.-Ed.
side of their exhibitions, inculcating the idea lection originating from the Sitio Conte, sent 2. But here too museums are hamstrung by
of the inviolability of a cultural heritage and to the University of Pennsylvania in exchange limited resources. ‘I have the poorest buqueras
the universality of culture as a heritage to be for the Piedras Negras stele. and even senior military officers offering me
safeguarded by every country that has pro- It does not seem to us impossible that a wonderful pieces but I can’t usually pay what
they ask,’ observed one museum director in
duced some manifestation of it ; by reaching great museum of the North will one day agree Ecuador (quoted in an article ‘Latin America
the community through various cultural ac- that in the interests of justice and human Goes T r a u r e Hunting’, by Sarita Kendall,
tivities so as to make citizens aware of their rights the sculptures which for more than Fimzcial Times, London, 2 December 1980).-Ed.

70. 136 Reina Torres de AraÚz
PiZhge
In an article entitled ‘Mayan History’ that ap- the Maya been so plundered, said Dr Clemency nought were they not backed up by education and
peared in the W;zhizgto~Post on 17 July Coggins, research associate at Howard’s Peabody enforcement, and on both levels the Department of
1981 David Remnick reported on examples Museum. Guatemala has become the most seriously Archaeology has an exemplary record. Public dis-
of illegal excavation in Central America de- endangered archaeological area in the Western plays, lectures and articles in local newspapers and
nounced by Dr George Stuart, staff ar- Hemisphere. magazines all help to make the average Belizean
Although trade agreements between the United aware of the country’s heritage and the need for its
chaeologist of the National Geographic maga-
States and Mexico have slowed the trafficking of the protection. Looters and dealers are brought to court
zine, and other colleagues : large steles, there are still no US laws barring the whenever they are caught and convictions are pub-
Recently a band of looters came across an eight-foot import of smaller objects. Coggins said the best way licized. While much of the department’s energy is
stele, or column, in Peten, the northern panhandle to prevent further looting is a bill now before the expended in following up exports of looting and
of Guatemala and the most fertile ground for Senate Finance Committee based on Unesco Igisla- seeing court cases through to conclusion, the
Mayan artifacts. A mine of information disappeared tion barring commerce in stolen cultural property. government also provides special protection for
when looters cut the stele vertically, like a piece of Guatemalan law prohibits the export of archae- some sites through the establishment of archaeolog-
cheese, destroying glyphs along its side. One half is ological artifacts, but Polo said his country cannot ical reserves which are accessible to visitors and
in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the other in the prevent thefts on its own. ‘We’d need the entire overseen by guards.
Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth. Guatemalan army to stop the looters,’ he said.
Last April on a site of Mayan tombs known as
Most recently, reports have come from Peru
The July/August 1981 issue of Archaeohgy, of thousands of precious archaeological
Rio Azul, dating from AD. 417, Guatemalan in-
spectors surprised ten looters. A shoot-out ensued. Vol. 34, No. 4, contained an article by David pieces-Chancay culture ceramics and ancient
‘Luckily they were not good shooters; they were M. Prendergast and Elizabeth Graham en- fishing nets-having been taken out on small
better diggers,’ said D r Francis Polo Sifontes, gen- titled ‘Fighting a Looting Battle : Xunan- aeroplanes, then dropped into the sea in plas-
eral director of Guatemala’s Institute of Anthro- tunich, Belize’. Reporting on the ransacking tic bags and picked up by waiting boats. (El
pology and History. The looters escaped unhurt of the Maya centre of Xunantunich by looters MonajdJid,9 December 198 1.)
with pieces of jade, pottery and an entire tomb. The in search of art objects, the authors point out
job, said Polo, was the work of experts.. . . that despite its extremely limited resources
According to Polo, looters for the past fifteen
Belize Of course, museums themselves are robbed
years have been stripping clean ancient Maya Indian as well. ICOM’s first Stolen Museum Objects
relics from nearly 1,000different sites in Guatemala has had antiquities legislation of considerable notice, recently prepared in co-operation with
and shipping the prized objects. He said the strength since 1924, with antecedents stretching INTERPOL and sent to all ICOM members,
smugglers often cover the relics with gum resin, as back into the late nineteenth century. Given addi-
gives details of thirty-four gold and silver ob-
though they were exporting the resin itself. Once tional teeth in 1971,the antiquities laws now rank
they arrive at their destination, the objects are re- among the strongest in the world. It is clear that
jects stolen from the Instituto Nacional de
a
assembled for sale. . . . every possible effort has been made at the legislative Cultura, Museo Nacional de Antropología y
Not since the sixteenth-century conquistadors level to ensure protection of archaeological sites and Arqueología, Lima, Peru, on 25 November
ravaged these countries in their search for gold have materials. Such efforts would, however, go for 1981 (see photos, p. 1 3 5 ) .
Importdnt issDesyon m y h u e missed:
Vol. XXIV, No. 1 , 1972, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, 1974,
Problems of the museum o f contemporary Museums and the th4t of works of art
art in the Vest Crime and the cultural heritage.
The changing face of contemporary art The psychology of thieves.
museums in the West. And suggestions for counteracting
cultural property pillage.
Vol. XXIV, No. 3, 1972,
Museum and agticulture Vol. XXVI, No. 2 , 1974,
Traditional agriculture and its place in Mweums 4 exact and natural sciemes
museums. Problems, perspectives and
Provocative articles concerning a role achievements.
for museums in improving the world‘s Special exhibitions.
food production.
Vol. XXVI, No. 3 / 4 , 1974,
Vol. XXV, No. 1/2, 1973, Museum architecture (double issue)
Museums and environment A n issue of vital importance for the
(double issue) planning and construction of museums.
T h e possibilities of using museums to A well-balanced mixture of theory and
appraise o u r relationships with our practice, with diagrams and sketches
surroundings. Representative which reduce complex problems to bare
monographs of different museums and essentials.
their corresponding roles.
I

71. Vol. XXX, NO. I , 1 9 7 8 , Vol. XXXI, No. 3, 1 9 7 9 , Vol. XXXII, No. 4 , 1980,
Display of works of art i2 Milati aiid
r Nuseums mzd child~en Museums in China
Padua; hìstoiy ?nuseunis aiid exhìbitìons : The pedagogical approach used in the All kinds-archaeological, scientific,
United Kìngdom, New Zealmd, Frawe, preparation of collections and special revolutionary, technological, provincial,
Norway programmes for youngsters-illustrated commemorative, and others-in a ‘first
Modern installations in ancient by experiments in various countries and time ever’ coverage of the Chinese
buildings. case-studies showing different heritage.
Islamic exhibition presentations. approaches. Plus an assessment of ten years of life
Aspects of the history museum. of an ecomuseum-Le Creusot,
Vol. XXXII, No. 1 / 2 , 1980, Montceau-les-Mines, France.
Vol. XXX, No. 3 / 4 , 1 9 7 8 , hfztseunis and ii~terdisciplir2arit~
Museums am! computers (double issue) (double issue) Vol. XXXIII, No. 1 , 1 9 8 1 ,
Towards an effective policy of museum Case-studies of ten different museums Mziseums, and society
informatics-present situations, and related institutions. Birth of a museum adapted to local
problems and achievements, with Includes the Jura Museum at Eichstatt, conditions at Bamako, Mali.
proposals for the future. Bavaria ; the Camargue Museum, Mas Educational outreach-an ingenious
du Pont-de-Rousty, Arles, France, and exhibition on masks.. . and human
Vol. XXXI, No. 1, 1 9 7 9 , the International Clockmaking Museum communication.
Retuni and restitution of cultural psoperp at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Plus Eskimo culture, an award-winning
A study on the principles, conditions museum and an alternative to accepted
and means for the restitution or return Vol. XXXII, NO. 3 , 1 9 8 0 , ‘ideas about children and museums.
of cultural property. Mexican nzuseuniu;
The exchange of works of art at museum and cultural heritage Vol. XXXIII, No. 3 , 1 9 8 1 ,
government level. Making use of buildings of historical, Museums azd disabled persons
aesthetic or cultural value. The power to act-understanding the
Vol. XXXI, No. 2 , 1 9 7 9 , Presentation of the urban archaeological problem and what you can do tÓ help.
Programniing f i r museums heritage in Bulgaria and Poland. Special educational programmes,
The participation of the ‘programmer’ Plus a museum island.. . Gorée. activities and travelling exhibitions.
in the task of building a museum. And new dimensions for ALL visitors.
Theoretical aspects and case-studies in
programming.
~
-
And coming ones
you wonv want to miss:
Vol. XXXIV, No. 3 , 1 9 8 2 , Vol. XXXV, No. 2 , 1 9 8 3 ,
(mixed issue) Museums aiid the ethnographic heritage
Features a special dossier on Ukrainian The museum’s responsibility towards
museums-to commemorate the the ‘ethnographic heritage’.
1,500 th anniversary of the founding of Case-studies of recent achievements and
the Ukrainian state. challenges.
Articles on open-air museums.
Vol. XXXV, No. 3 , 1 9 8 3 ,
Vol. XXXV, No. 1 , 1 9 8 3 , Hungarian mz~seohgy
Museums and the mderwater heritage A special issue devoted entirely to
What is the underwater heritage? professional practice in Hungarian
What are the challenges it creates for museums.
museums ? Articles and case-studies on
To order: contact the national
the conservation and display of
distributor for Unesco publications in
underwater materials.
your country (see list at back of
journal) or write to the Unesco Press,
Unesco, 7 place de Fontenoy,
75700 Paris, France.
For back issues prior to 1 9 7 2 , contact
Kraus Reprint, Nendeln, Liechtenstein.