Today, Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie and the Argentine Secretary of Culture, Pablo Avelluto, held a meeting with the ambassadors of the Ibero-American Community in Buenos Aires, the Director of the South America Sub-regional office of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Alejo Ramírez, and officials of the Regional Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The meeting was held to announce an initiative of the Secretary of Culture for Argentina to offer assistance to Brazil in view of the damage to the Rio de Janeiro National Museum following the fire that broke out on 2 September.
Faurie thanked all the ambassadors and the representatives of UNESCO and SEGIB for their presence and underscored "how shocked we all were to see the museum on fire, considering what this means for the cultural and institutional life of Brazil and the whole region." The Foreign Minister noted the necessity to create coordination mechanisms to deal with these contingencies.
"So, following the initiative of Secretary Avelluto, the Foreign Ministry is now available to help coordinate steps and help Brazil to recover part of the loss," he stressed. Faurie highlighted that "our countries have cultural heritage and museum collections whose value is often not duly appreciated."
The Secretary of Culture announced the creation of a Working Group to evaluate the possibility of providing technical assistance and an identification of items from Argentine collections related to Brazilian history, for lending purposes. He also noted that this is an opportunity to work jointly within the framework of the IBERMUSEOS Programme.
Avelluto pointed out that "the Ibero-American space is the most appropriate one to cope with this difficult situation since it has a programme for the safeguarding of cultural heritage, in addition to being the expression of our shared values and identity."
The Secretary added that "national museums currently represent us beyond our borders. Brazil has a rich and fascinating history, so we were deeply distressed by the images of the fire."
The Brazilian Ambassador in Buenos Aires, Sergio Danese, thanked Argentina for its initiative and referred the measures that Brazil has put in place to restore part of the undamaged collection, also highlighting the assistance provided by UNESCO.
The ambassadors present and the regional representative of UNESCO, Fréderic Vacheron, welcomed Argentina's initiative and a message in this regard sent by the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, was read out during the meeting.
Press Release No. 361/18
