Crime Prevention Project SOS Azulejo - Portugal
1. Why is this project being implemented?
Portuguese historic and artistic tiles stand out in the world cultural heritage for their invaluable richness in quality, quantity, style, materials and techniques.
Portuguese architecture is known worldwide for its "azulejos", which decorate the exterior and interior walls of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese buildings, from churches to hospitals, from palaces to railway stations, from fountains to monuments, from all sorts of public buildings to entire ancient urban private housing blocks.
Because this kind of cultural heritage is increasingly valued by art experts, historians and antique dealers, it is getting more and more tempting for art and antiques burglary and trafficking - and the number of thefts has been rising accordingly.
These factors put the Portuguese historic and artistic tile heritage at greater risk every day.
2. Who is implementing this project?
The Portuguese Judiciary Police Museum possesses a collection of stolen historic tiles which have been recovered by the police but not returned to their owners because their origin remains unknown up to this day.
Because Polícia Judiciária (PJ) has the exclusive competence for crimes related to works of art and cultural goods and the number of thefts of historic tiles has risen significantly since the nineties, the PJ decided to implement a crime prevention project against theft, traffic and vandalism of Portuguese historic and artistic tiles and launch a campaign for the protection and conservation of this cultural heritage. Name of the Project: "SOS Azulejo"
In order to implement this project, the PJ sought the Partnership of several prestigious Portuguese organisations which embraced all thematic vectors of this problem, namely other police forces working on the field, institutions from the Ministries of Culture and Education and a Municipalities Association. This Partnership made a global approach to this problem possible.
Partners:
- Instituto Superior de Polícia Judiciária e Ciências Criminais (ISPJCC)
- Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT)
- Instituto de Gestão do Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico (IGESPAR)
- Associação Nacional de Municípios Portugueses (ANMP)
- Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR)
- Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP).
3. How is this project being implemented?
3.1. The "SOS Azulejo Project" will be implemented through the following main actions:
- Constructing/updating a website - www.sosazulejo.com - Containing useful, valuable and not elsewhere available information concerning a global approach to the protection of Portuguese Historic and Artistic Tiles for public access. The available information includes:
- Images of stolen tile panels. Easy access to these images aims at:
- Making the circulation of stolen historic tiles in the market more difficult;
- Making the identification and recovery of stolen historic tiles easier.
- Practical advice concerning:
- theft and vandalism - crime prevention;
- conservation care - preventive conservation;
- Useful information on good practices and how to accede municipalities’ "Tiles’ banks" for public free use;
- Information and news about all sorts of (educational) events and activities concerning the protection of Historic and Artistic Tiles;
- Dissemination tools concerning the protection of historic and artistic tiles.
- TV SPOT disseminating pieces of advice concerning the protection of Historic and Artistic Tiles;
- Publishing a Historic and Artistic Tiles Conservation Handbook for conservation and restoration experts;
- Publishing a booklet containing practical advice concerning:
- theft and vandalism - crime prevention;
- conservation care - preventive conservation;
- Organising and disseminating Seminars, Workshops, Exhibitions and all sorts of educational/playful events and actions concerning the protection of historic and artistic tiles.
3.2. Sponsors
|
sitemap
RSS