Yesterday, Koichiro Matsuura, Unesco’s Director-General, began his second official visit to Chile (the first one was in 2003).
Until 11 February he will meet with important national authorities (yesterday he was received at La Moneda by the President Michelle Bacelet; and in the Ministry of Foreign Relations he chatted with Paulina Urrutia, minister of Culture, and with Alberto van Klaveren, Foreign Relations Subsecretary).
Today, in Óscar Acuña’s company, executive secretary of the National Council for National Monuments, he will travel to Pascua’s Island to see in detail the restoration works taking place in its monuments.
“This is a very important visit we have been working on since November with the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Conaf. His presence in Rapa Nui is important to think about archaeological conservation, which is related not only to the moáis. There are petroglyphs too exposed to erosion”, states Acuña.
Pilar Armanet, Chile’s ambassador in France and to Unesco, who was present at the meeting in the Foreign Relations Ministry, said “she had a pending debt with Pascua’s Island, and now she had the chance of visiting it during Tapati, in the middle of its festive season a very appropriate moment to get to know it”.
Consulted by “El Mercurio”, Paulina Urrutia said that Koichiro Matsuura highly valued the fact that in Chile two important conventions have been ratified: the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and the convention on the promotion and protection of cultural expressions. “We talked about the fact that we still have pending the safeguard of underwater heritage and illicit traffic. In this sense we already have various projects approved that are waiting to pass to the Congress or that are still under study”.
The Minister of Culture also referred to the first “Unesco Seal of Excellence for Crafts” (http://www.unesco.org.uy/cultura/es/areas-de-trabajo/cultura/cultura-mercosur/publicaciones.html)
“In 2008, in Argentina, 150 craftsmen presented their work and 8 were selected to receive Unesco’s seal. What is important is that by the end of this year this selection will be carried out in our country”, Urrutia said, who took this opportunity to give him as a present a craftwork of the Chilean artist Héctor Bascuñán.