At the meeting of the Drafting Committee and the Editorial Team to develop the Project, members focused on exchanging views on mechanisms, policies, financial resources and coordination plans between agencies. These are contents identified that need to be further improved to create a basis for statistics, identification, mobilization, negotiation and bringing valuable cultural assets back to Vietnam.
According to the direction of building the Project, bringing Vietnamese heritage back from abroad should not only handle each individual case but also be placed in a unified mechanism.
In which, functional agencies must be able to statistically, research, and identify artifacts and works of special value being kept abroad, thereby establishing priorities and choosing appropriate methods for approaching, mobilizing, negotiating, and receiving.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong - Head of the Project Drafting Committee said that this is a necessary and urgent task. The project must create a synchronous and long-term mechanism to determine the position and value of artifacts and rare antiques of Vietnam abroad, and at the same time develop appropriate methods to bring valuable cultural assets back to the country.
In fact, in the past time, some Vietnamese antiques have been repatriated through many forms, including auctions with the participation of private collectors. These results show that the possibility of bringing cultural assets back to the country is feasible, but also raises the requirement for a unified policy, especially in the context that valuable artifacts can appear in many different markets.
These initial results show that the repatriation of cultural assets is a task of practical significance, and at the same time sets out the requirement to have synchronous and long-term mechanisms, policies and implementation methods, suitable to practical conditions as well as international legal regulations" - the Deputy Minister affirmed.
If completed, the Project to bring top artworks and cultural heritages that meet the criteria of national treasures and precious artifacts of Vietnam that are abroad back to the country will be the basis for clearly defining resources, coordination methods and responsibilities of parties in the process of repatriation.
The heritage brought back not only supplements domestic collections but also contributes to completing heritage resources, serving research, preservation and promotion of Vietnamese cultural values.
This is also the basis for the State to proactively access artifacts and works of special value when they appear in the international market, and at the same time create conditions for domestic organizations and individuals to participate in the heritage repatriation process in a convenient, transparent and legally regulated manner.
Deputy Minister Hoang Dao Cuong requested the Drafting Committee and the Editorial Team to continue reviewing the entire draft, fully absorbing opinions at the meeting, ensuring that the content of the Project meets the set goals and requirements. The Department of Cultural Heritage is requested to carefully summarize the opinions, complete the dossier and ensure the progress of submitting it to the Government.
Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage Le Thi Thu Hien - Standing Deputy Head of the Drafting Committee, said that the contributed opinions will be received to continue to complete the Project before submitting it to the Government.
