المملكة: New amendments to the executive regulations of the Antiquities and Museums System

The Ministry of Culture is seeking the opinions of the public and specialists on amendments to the executive regulations of the Antiquities, Museums and Urban Heritage System, with the aim of keeping pace with those updates that have been approved, which contributes to raising the efficiency of cultural heritage preservation operations and enhancing the benefit from it, as well as improving the management of museums and archaeological sites.
The Ministry specified amendments to the executive regulations of the Fund for Antiquities, Museums and Urban Heritage, which consist of studying the support requests submitted to the Fund, recommending them, proposing the amount of support if it recommends providing it, and preparing the draft annual budget for the Fund.

The Ministry explained that the aid, donations, grants, gifts, and endowments allocated to the Fund upon receipt are based on the amount received, and are recorded according to their market value, which is estimated by a committee formed for this purpose by a decision of the Minister or his delegate. The decision determines the committee’s chairman, members, and secretary.
The regulation defines the term “registry” repeatedly. The first position at the beginning of the definitions is “registry”: record of urban heritage, and in the second position it defines “registry”: “record of antiquities.”
In order to avoid duplication, it is necessary to amend and unify the definition, which is everything that humans have built, including cities, villages, neighborhoods, and buildings, with the spaces, facilities, and pieces they contain that have urban, historical, scientific, cultural, or national value.

Regarding the formation of the Scientific Committee, it was amended by deleting the reference to the name of the Chairman of the Committee, and the amendment was such that the formation decision specifies the Chairman, members, and Secretary, in order to unify the methodology in the committees, in accordance with the best practices followed. As for amending the Committee by adding “scientific,” the name of the Committee was clarified to distinguish it from other committees. The other to avoid any confusion with the rest of the committees.

The amendments indicated that the Scientific Committee is responsible for studying the requests, reports, studies and research presented to it regarding archaeological survey work or archaeological excavations, and recommending the publication of research and studies specialized in antiquities in the Authority’s repositories.
The amendments added Article 75 bis in order to increase the clarity and standardization of procedures, which contributes to the preservation of movable antiquities, which stipulates that the owner or possessor of a movable antiquity is obligated to inform the Authority in the event that the antiquity is lost, damaged, or stolen, within seventy-two hours of learning of its loss or loss. Damaged or stolen.

The Ministry stated that, by a decision of the Council, a committee linked to the CEO was formed called “The Permanent Committee for Investing in Archaeological and Heritage Sites and Buildings and Operating Visitor Services Sites in Archaeological and Heritage Sites,” and it will later be referred to as the “Permanent Committee for Investment,” and its chairman, secretary, and members are specified in the formation decision.
In the list of museums, the amendments added the criterion of investment potential as one of the criteria that raises the classification, given the importance of the investment dimension in museum classification.
The regulations deleted the word “writing” in Article 15, and the reason is that the transfer of ownership takes place electronically through the Abdaa Cultural Licensing platform, as well as Paragraph 4 and replaced it with what stipulates the submission of any document or information requested by the relevant authority or government entity. Paragraph 5 was amended to stipulate providing The authority confirms the transfer of ownership of the museum.