Africa-Press – Angola. The implementation of the Cultural Cooperation Agreement, signed last February, in Versailles, in the Republic of France, by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Filipe Zau, and his French counterpart, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, and several topics of bilateral interest were addressed. Tuesday, in Luanda, during an audience that the Angolan official granted to the French ambassador, Daniel Vosgien.
This Agreement, valid for a period of five years, foresees, among other aspects, the promotion of exchanges in the artistic and cultural domain, having also addressed the need for training and capacity building, for Museum Management, which for this purpose, representatives of the French Ministry of Culture will travel to Angola this year for exploratory meetings aimed at establishing an action plan.
The meeting also served to analyze the Mbanza Kongo dossier, elevated in 2017 to Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, as well as the need to create a concerted and consistent cultural agenda for the Iron Palace, with a view to promoting tourism. and the culture itself.
Regarding tourism, the need to develop sustainable tourism was also addressed.
The meeting, which was also attended by the Adida for Cooperation and Cultural Action, of the French Embassy in Angola, ended in an atmosphere of satisfaction and with the proposal of actions to continue the strengthening of cooperation.
The agreement, signed last February, establishes the framework for the two countries to cooperate in the areas of heritage, artistic creation, cultural and creative industries and encourages the various stakeholders to develop cooperation and exchange programs between specialists and good practices.
It also aims to promote mutual knowledge of culture and history between countries, using culture as a lever to achieve a better quality of life for the respective peoples, taking into account its impact on socio-economic development and consolidation and strengthening bonds of friendship and mutual understanding.
The Ministers of Culture of the two countries also signed, last February, in Versailles, the deed of the donation from Angola to France of two masterpieces of French sculpture from the 18th century, “Zephir, Flore et Amour”, by Philippe Bertrand, René Frémin and Jacques Bousseau, and “L’Abondance” by Lambert Sigisbert Adam.
The donation by Angola attests to the excellence of bilateral relations, being the first act of a program of heritage cooperation actions, organized from 2022.
The two sculptures, commissioned by Kings Louis XIV and Louis XV respectively, are joined by the collections of the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon and were presented between February and June, in an exhibition entitled “Found Masterpieces”.
The two works were Angolan State property since 1979, when the building of the Angolan Embassy in France was acquired, in whose garden they were located.
The sculptures were located in 2018 by a specialist from Versailles, who did not know their whereabouts and who had made a thorough study of the available archives on sales involving the castle’s heritage and the successive changes of owner, in order to inventory and carry out a search in the real estate of all descendants, in the hope that the works were still in France.
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