Spanish Mural

Following the recent exchange of messages on the Conservation
DistList about the scandal that burst this summer about the
restoration of a Spanish mural, we would like to pass you on the
manifesto that the Grup Tecnic, the professional association of
Catalan conservators, has written and made public this week. The
text has been co-signed by other Spanish professional associations
as ACRE, ARCC and the GE-IIC. The Catalan and Spanish versions of
the text can be found on our website

    <URL:http://www.gruptecnic.org>

We're looking forward to your reactions and suggestions.

    Concerning the Ecce Homo by Borja, The Conservators Want to
    Report

    This summer Spain has been in the limelight due to an improper
    intervention on a artistic work of art, executed by a painting
    amateur in good faith, but without the knowledge to carry out
    this task.

    It has been a long time since we, conservators, have begun
    struggling for the correct conservation of our cultural heritage
    and today we are disconcerted as much by the constant loss that
    we notice everyday (what happened in Borja is not an isolated
    example), as by the type of news the media have transmitted to
    the whole world. It is sad that the majority of our society
    underestimate our profession.

    For this reason, we would first like to clarify who we are and
    what we do.

    The conservator:

        *   performs an activity of public interest

        *   differs from other professionals by his/her specific
            education in conservation of cultural heritage

        **  is not an artist nor a craftsman

    It is the professional that has the training and the experience
    to act on cultural heritage with the aim to preserve it for
    future generations, always according to the guidelines of an
    international code of deontology. Secondly, we want to report
    that neither the Spanish law of historical heritage, neither the
    laws of the different autonomies in Spain, guarantee the correct
    protection of our heritage. None of these laws recognises the
    figure of the conservator as the only one professional with the
    necessary competences to diagnose and take part in all that
    regards the conservation of cultural heritage.

    In attempting to change this situation, we claim that:

        1.  To guarantee the preservation of cultural heritage and
            its correct transmission to future generations our
            profession has to be regulated and recognised.
            Consequently the access and the exercise of the
            profession of conservator has to be governed by specific
            juridical norms and the professional title has to be
            clear-cut and recognised at State level.

        2.  The conservators, through the professional associations,
            have to be represented in the consultative organisms at
            national and autonomic level, so that they can look over
            the good practice and correct conservation of cultural
            heritage.

        3.  The system of professional and business qualifications
            for tenders and public bids have to be clarified, with
            standards specified to conservation.

        4.  A register of qualified conservators needs to be
        created.

    Tourism being one of the main economic dynamics on which our
    country has bet to get us out of the crisis, we conservators
    believe that this could and should have to be a sustainable and
    quality cultural tourism. To preserve a unique cultural
    heritage, to possess an excellent preventive conservation plan
    and to have the best specialists to take care of our cultural
    heritage should have been the headlines in the national and
    international media. Something does not work when it looks like
    a joke and the more lousy the work is, the more rewarded it is
    when this should inspire shame and indignation. It is essential,
    for any country with values, to bet for quality in our work,
    carried out by qualified professionals. As we have understood
    that the protection of the environment is of special importance
    for our quality of life, society also have to be conscious of
    the importance of culture and the worth of its correct
    conservation. And it is in this field where the conservator has
    a great role to play.  We have had enough of allowing
    unqualified people to work indirectly on our cultural heritage,
    Our heritage is in danger, lot's save it.

    Signed:

        Grup Tecnic
        Associacio Professional dels Conservadors-Restauradors de
        bens culturals de Catalunya

        ACRE
        Associacion de Conservadores-Restauradores de Espana

        ARCC
        Associacio de Conservadors-Restauradors de Catalunya

        GEIIC
        Grupo Espanol de Conservacion. International Institute for
        Conservation

Agnes Gall-Ortlik
President of the Grup Tecnic


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:20
                  Distributed: Sunday, October 7, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-26-20-004
                                  ***