A public petition to be delivered to the Assembly of the Republic, will be launched in defense of the Cork Museum and Fábrica do Inglês, in Silves, announced this Friday the president of the Portuguese Association of Industrial Archeology (APAI).
The announcement was made at the concentration in front of the tourist entertainment complex and museum, installed at Fábrica do Inglês in 1999, but closed for five years after the bankruptcy of the Alicoop/Alisuper group, which owned the former cork factory.
The concentration was attended by around 70 people, including prominent personalities in museology in Portugal.
Na public auction on May 30th, Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) bought the Fábrica do Inglês property for 2.239.600 euros, while the estate of the Cork Museum, which operated in one of the building's wings, in which the Silves City Council was interested, ended up being purchased by Grupo Nogueira, current owner of the Alisuper Supermarkets and, in this way, also a major creditor of the bankrupt Grupo Alicoop/Alisuper, which in 1999 transformed the former cork factory into a restaurant and leisure space.
At the auction, the Sul Informação watched, the museological estate was still disputed between the Chamber of Silves and the Nogueira Group, but the latter ended up doing the final bidding, for 36 thousand euros.
This week, in statements to our newspaper, João Nogueira, administrator of Grupo Nogueira, he guaranteed that his intention is "to maintain and reopen the Cork Museum as soon as possible".
But yesterday, in statements to the Público newspaper, the manager went further: "We want to open the museum there or elsewhere."
Now, this possibility of moving the museum's collection of pieces and documents to another location left museologists and heritage defenders in shock. “This Cork Museum cannot be built anywhere else but where it is. It is an integrated industrial heritage, which includes both the estate and the building itself. Any removal of parts from this location is destruction», explained Jorge Custódio, president of APAI to Sul Informação, outside the merger.
Manuel Castelo Ramos, former director of the now closed Cork Museum, also considered that the removal of the estate is “an inconsiderable hypothesis”. If that happens, “this museum is no longer meaningful. Machines outside this context lose their interest. In addition, the building itself is classified as being of municipal public interest. This museum, outside its space, would never be considered a European Industrial Museum, never!”
For their part, Dália Paulo and José Gameiro, who participated in the concentration in their capacity as members of the board of ICOM Portugal, stressed that the «great concern» of this body «is not to separate what is the mobile estate from what is the immovable building . The indication we had was that Grupo Nogueira was buying but with a sense of defending its heritage. And defending the heritage is not the same if the estate is not in this place, which is also part of the Museum».
This week, in statements to Sul Informação, Mayor Rosa Palma had announced that the municipality, in light of these latest developments, is "evaluating its finances so that the possibility of buying the Fábrica do Inglês" can be studied., currently owned by Caixa Geral de Depósitos.
As for the intention to classify the Cork Museum estate as “of municipal interest”, which the Chamber also started a few days ago, it is already known that it will have little success. It's just that the current owner of the museological collection has to agree with the classification process, and that, as we know, will not happen.
At the gathering in front of the main gate of Fábrica do Inglês, the motion that APAI had already approved in the recent Conference on Industrial Archeology was approved by acclamation, considering that «what is happening today at the Museu da Fábrica do Inglês, in Silves, it is the most ignoble thing about contemporary Portuguese heritage policy».
«At a time when Portugal – the world's largest producer of cork – is seeking new forms, partnerships and markets with the (unanimously recognized) objective of a significant and militant economic development that is intended to be self-sustaining, allowing the destruction of a museum reference and internationally awarded, belonging to Portuguese museology with an industrial aspect and in all titles paradoxical, Kafkaesque, therefore absurd», read Jorge Custódio, president of APAI, to the seven dozen people who demonstrated for the defense of heritage.
Among the participants were APAI president Jorge Custódio, ICOM Portugal board members José Gameiro and Dália Paulo, the vice president and councilor for culture at the Chamber of Silves, as well as Luís Raposo, former director of the National Archeology Museum and former president of ICOM Portugal.
The concentration was attended by representatives of the museums of Portimão, Loulé, Albufeira and Archeology of Silves, among many other participants. One of them was, curiously, a member of the Nogueira Group, who did not make himself known or intervene. just watching, in silence, what was being said.
This was, according to the notice of concentration, a day of «information and rejection», held at a time when «the process of dismantling for sale of the equipment of the so-called “Fábrica do Inglês” in Silves is underway.
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