The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) is proposing to list 400 items of significant cultural value as statutorily protected movable properties, and a 30-day public consultation about the matter will start today.
IC President Deland Leong Wai Man announced the list during a press briefing yesterday after a closed-door regular meeting of the government-appointed Cultural Heritage Council at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) in Nape.
The public consultation period is now running through January 2.
The Cultural Heritage Protection Law defines cultural heritage as comprising intangible cultural heritage and tangible cultural heritage that consists of classified immovable properties, i.e., cultural heritage construction structures, and movable properties.
According to the law, classified movable properties refer to items of significant cultural value such as musical instruments, sculptures, drawings, old books, and furniture.
This is the first time that the government is proposing to classify items of significant cultural value as statutorily protected movable properties, i.e., the first batch, since the Cultural Heritage Protection Law took effect in 2014.
According to Leong, the 400 proposed items are part of the collection of the Macau Museum, covering archaeological relics, religious relics, porcelain, pottery, drawings, prints, calligraphy, textiles, furniture (including its decorative components), manuscripts, as well as rare books, maps, and other publications.
Leong pointed out that her bureau also launches today a public consultation on its proposal to list 12 more items of Macau’s intangible cultural heritage as statutorily protected ones. The public consultation on the matter was first announced by the bureau in a statement last week.
This came after the government first classified 12 items in its statutory protection list of intangible cultural heritage in 2019 since the Cultural Heritage Protection Law took effect in 2014.
This screenshot taken yesterday shows images of some categories of items of significant cultural value on Cultural Affairs Bureau’s (IC) website.
