2013-12-10
National Audit Office: the preservation of movable cultural property has not been ensured
Discussions in the public space concerning the inappropriate protection and maintenance of movable cultural property as well as recent fires in some churches and other religious buildings that destroyed or damaged part of the items of cultural value prompted an audit to assess the efficiency of the management and maintenance of movable cultural property.
“The audit identified a number of legislative gaps that do not allow proper organization and implementation of the inventory and maintenance of movable cultural property. We hope that the recommendations issued by the National Audit Office to the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Cultural Heritage will help to improve the preservation of property and to ensure that the actual value of the protected property is identified and that this property is protected against deterioration or disappearance,” said Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė commenting on the audit results.
The auditors found that certificates and regulations on the protection of movable cultural property have not been issued to all owners whose property has been entered in the Register of Cultural Property. Without such regulation, the Department of Cultural Heritage is not able to ensure proper maintenance of such property meanwhile the owners cannot properly preserve it. Besides, the owners do not always know that they can receive compensation for the costs of the research, conservation, and restoration works and protection measures for the preservation of movable cultural property. On the other hand, the audit found that even if a person does know about the compensation, the website of the Department is too complicated to be able to find information quickly and in one place on how to use the available compensation. Therefore, not all measures provided for in the law to ensure the preservation of the property have been used.
The auditors also pointed out that the frequency of checks of movable cultural property and criteria of the assessment of the property condition have not been set, so the checks have not been carried out systematically. Failure to carry out regular checks of movable cultural property prevent timely detection of lost, damaged property, there is no information about changes in its ownership, etc. In order to preserve and properly maintain movable cultural property, it is also important that the Ministry of Culture carries out regular checks of the physical protection and inventory of museums, libraries, and archives, which was not done over the period audited due to limited human resources and heavy workload of the staff.
The amount of movable cultural property stored in Lithuanian museums alone totals about 6.6 million items. Since 2010 when the identification of the fair value of the movable cultural property was launched, the share of the property whose fair value was identified until 2013 accounts for 13.7 per cent. Auditors estimate that if such a pace continues, the fair value of all property will be identified not earlier than by 2030. In addition, museums have been applying different valuation methods and criteria, so the valuation of similar property may differ and be far from the fair value. In order to ensure uniform and prompt valuation of movable cultural property and to create the right conditions for insuring this property, the Ministry of Culture should develop a valuation methodology to be applied to all movable cultural property, regardless of its ownership.
Another important thing is that not all items of movable heritage contained in the Register of Cultural Property have been classified as movable cultural property. In order to provide correct information to the public about the items listed in the Register of Cultural Property, movable cultural property should be separated from immovable one based on its in rem purpose and nature.