The shift of paradigm when religious art works became heritage: the dilemma of material vs immaterial significance : an overview of Portuguese reliquaries and mural paintings

We entered the twenty-first century with new perspectives on the concept, contents and meaning of “cultural heritage”. By changing the focus of conservation heritage from material to intangible aspects, the theoretical debate brought a new vision and new challenges on its conservation. The 1989 Code of Ethics of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) defined “cultural property” as those objects having “cultural or religious significance” assuming their communicative function, as does the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). In this sense, the “objects” (and here we use the term defined by Barbara Applebaum) do not matter for what they are (materiality - historical or artistic truths), but for their meaning, and their usefulness and communicative functions. Thus, being the cause of the symbolic value attached to them by the subject(s). This clearly refers to the immaterial or intangible aspects of heritage (Muñoz Viñas, 2003). It tells us that the immaterial aspects should be incorporated in conservation issues. But how do we keep the intangible aspects of an object that, at a certain time of its life, lost their function and significance for which was produced? In this poster we dicuss the "patrimonialization" procesess of religious art (reliquaries and mural paintings) removed from the cult or even from religious spaces.