Researcher Auron Tare has reacted again after the statements of the Minister of Culture Blendi Gonxhe regarding the news that excavations are being carried out with heavy equipment at the Acropolis of Finiqi. According to Minister Gonxhe, the activity was the work of the Ministry and that the news spread was malicious.
But Auron Tare says that the photos the minister has published show the total degradation of restoration science in Albania, rejecting Minister Gonxhe's statements.
FULL REACTION FROM AURON TARE
“As it was, as it is”
apo
"HOC AEDIFICIVM"
PREFACE TEMPORARY
GONXAE
EXSTRVCTVM”
The Minister of Culture, Gonxhe, after a series of media reports showing that the Acropolis of Finiqi was being excavated with heavy equipment, issued a press release explaining that this project was the work of the Ministry he headed and that all other news came from ill-wishers or uninformed media.
To further support his argument that what was being done at the Acropolis of Phoenix (with taxpayers' money) was fair and professional, he accompanied the article with several photos, to show the public that all the rumors about damage to the Acropolis were wrong.
However, beyond the excavations with excavators in the Acropolis of one of the most important cities of Antiquity, the photos that the Minister has published to show what is being done in Finiq prove not only the profound ignorance of the Ministry of Culture, but also the total degradation of restoration science in Albania.
To be fair to the readers, I sent the photos published by the Minister of Culture of the Republic to two restoration specialists, who have been restoring Cultural Monuments for decades as part of the Institute of Monuments. I also sent them to two foreign restorers, one in Italy and one in Israel.
To preserve the dignity of the Minister of the Republic, I am not publishing the comments of foreign restorers regarding the restoration of the Ancient Wall of Finiqi, but I am presenting below some very brief thoughts from Albanian restorers, who after over 40 years of work today hang out in neighborhood cafes, because the firms that receive projects through tenders do not even call them for scientific consultation.
Below:
"This wall is a shameful fabrication. First, in restoration it is not normal to place small stones at the base and large stones on top of them. There was no need to 'restore' it; it was enough to consolidate it. It is clear that the stones are not original. They were not placed according to the technique of antiquity, which provided for the flattening of the faces of the blocks. It does not belong to either the Roman period or the late antiquity that used mortar. Can you ask the Minister what period they are building from?"
What should I say to the gentlemen who sincerely seek answers from the Minister of Culture, when the very firm carrying out these "restorations" does not have the slightest idea what it is doing?
After all, the company in question, which has never carried out such interventions, has come out simply to make some money and bears no professional or moral responsibility. The Minister of Culture, of course, has no idea what he is talking about or what photos he is releasing to the public. The real problem lies in the silence of the specialists in archaeology and restoration, the Academy of Sciences or the “archaeologists” of the State University, who do not speak out.
They don't speak out, even though what is happening to our heritage is not only a shame, but also a crime against the past and the future.
As for the question of which historical period our Minister of Culture is "constructing" in Finiq, perhaps the only answer would be a plaque.
"HOC AEDIFICIVM"
PREFACE TEMPORARY
GONXAE
EXSTRVCTVM”
placed on the wall, as evidence of the ignorance and despair that has gripped our cultural heritage.
