"I don't look at the past as a kind of territory of remission of sins, but rather as a source of learning so that plurality, diversity and humanist values are fully affirmed" said Dalila Rodrigues to journalists in Viseu, where she was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the Museu Nacional Grão Vasco.

Dalila Rodrigues defended that, "if there is any cultural asset that has been unduly appropriated, from an ethical point of view", the Portuguese must "proceed with its return".

"We are talking about ethics, we are not talking about reparations or looking at the past from contemporary perspectives", she stressed.

The minister, who was director of the Museu Grão Vasco, of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga and of the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, recalled that she knows the Portuguese national heritage well and that, "up to the present, no cultural asset has been identified that is in this situation", nor has "any request for return" been presented.

In this context, she said she agrees that the current Government should follow "the policies that have been developed by previous governments, namely cooperation".

Dalila Rodrigues said that she recently participated in a meeting of Ministers of Culture of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and "the dialogue was extremely productive in terms of valuing the Portuguese language and cooperation".

The government official will be heard in parliament on this subject following the approval of a request from Chega.

The leader of Chega, André Ventura, justified the request for a hearing with statements by Dalila Rodrigues, in which she defended the return of works of art to former colonies, before becoming Minister of Culture.

In an interview with Observador, in November, Dalila Rodrigues, who was then director of the Mosteiro de Jerónimos and the Torre de Belém, defended that it is "fundamental to assume the imperative of returning appropriated goods, regardless of the conditions of their reception", considering that we cannot "continue to exercise a tutelary power over the places of undue origin of the pieces".

The discussion and pressure on European and American museums and institutions to return heritage taken from various countries that were under the domain of former colonial powers, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium, has increased in recent times.

In Portugal, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said at the end of April that the country should lead the process of assuming and repairing the consequences of the period of colonialism and suggested as an example the forgiveness of debts, cooperation and financing.

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