The 1998 contract under which porcelain and gold items salvaged from a 16th century Portuguese wreck were sold at auction in Holland last month violates Mozambican law on the country's cultural heritage, and is therefore null and void, according to a legal expert, interviewed in Wednesday's issue of the independent newsheet "Mediafax".
Carlos Serra, a lecturer in cultural law at the country's Legal Training Centre (CFJJ), said the contract, signed between the Mozambican state and the companies Patrimonio Internacional and Arqueonautas Worldwide, contains clauses which violate a law of 1988 protecting the country's heritage.
Goods from the sunken Portuguese galleon, lying in waters off Mozambique Island, in Nampula province, were salvaged by the companies concerned, and half of these spoils (consisting of 125 pieces of Ming Dynasty chinese porcelain, and 21 gold items) were auctioned in Amsterdam on 19 May, making 117,000 Euros (about 140,000 US dollars) for Aqueonautas.
Serra backed up Mozambican archaeologists who argue that the 1988 law forbids the export of archaeological finds. The law describes all archaeological spoils as "classified cultural assets" - and as such they cannot be taken out of the country (except for exhibition purposes), much less sold off to the highest bidder.
"What is at stake here is the illegal export of public property", said Serra. "So we have all been injured and we should demand that the party which injured us, namely the state, recognise that it has done wrong".
Serra thought the Administrative Tribunal, the court which monitors the legality of state acts, should analyse the 1998 contract. The Public Prosecutor's Office could request a ruling from the Tribunal - but if the Public Prosecutor declined to do so, a private body, such as the Association of the Friends of Mozambique Island, could take the case to the Tribunal. The National Director for Cultural Assets, in the Ministry of Culture, Angela Kane, has argued that the export of the porcelain and gold items was not illegal because they were regarded as "unclassified goods".
She said the contract protects the country's interest, because when the goods are removed from the bottom of the sea, the state has the right to keep all items that are in excellent condition, or are very rare, or are of outstanding financial, cultural or historical value.
Arqueonautas, Kane said, only keeps what is damaged, common, or of lesser value. However, that is not what the 1988 law says. It classifies all archaeological monuments and finds, including those under water, as "classified" and thus inalienable. The only body that can declassify archaeological objects (and thus make it possible to sell them) is the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet).
Kane tried to get round this problem by arguing that, since the 1998 contract was approved by the Council of Ministers, there was no need for it to declassify those items which Arqueonautas wished to export.
The second company involved, Patrimonio Internacional (PI), is headed by a former minister for cooperation, Jacinto Veloso.
Under the contract, once the state has taken what it considers the best items of an archaeological find, and once Arqueonautas has taken its 50 per cent cut, the rest is the property of PI.
Veloso responded to the initial "Mediafax" investigation, published in May, with a statement which, oddly enough, was sent, not to "Mediafax", but to one of the Maputo weeklies, "O Pais".
Like Kane, Veloso argued that the government can authorise the export of archaeological finds. He cited article 15 of the law, which does indeed state "the export of cultural assets is permitted".
But it goes on to add, in the very next paragraph, that "the export of classified cultural assets is forbidden".
"The law is very clear", commented Serra. "archaeological finds are classified assets, and classified assets cannot be exported !" For export to happen, the goods must be declassified, he added - and that would require the Council of Ministers to take a decision on them one by one.
Fonte: AIM
