The Regional Directorate for Culture, through the Carlos Machado Museum, received the estate of Nestor de Sousa, which was donated by his heirs, Alcina da Silva Carreiro César and João da Silva. It consists of a collection of more than 1,500 objects, including works of art as well as decorative, regional ethnography and sacred art pieces, costumes, coins, medals and furniture.
This act of generosity that evidences a profound sense of civic participation in the preservation of the memory and the cultural heritage will enrich the Museum's heritage, which continues to pursue its mission of safeguarding heritage in accordance with its duties and functions as a museum.
As for the artistic pieces, the estate contains more than 70 works by Azorean artists, such as Urbano, Luís França, Machado da Luz, Domingos Rebelo, Canto da Maya, Álvaro Raposo de França, Carlos Carreiro, Eduardo Teixeira, Victor Câmara, Maria Tomás and Tomaz Borba Vieira.
In regard to national plastic artists, this collection includes works by naturalist painter Carlos Reis as well as by modernist painter such as Almada Negreiros, Rafael Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro, Stuart Carvalhais, Rocha Vieira and Jorge Barradas, among others.
As the backbone of museums' collections, donation is one of the most relevant forms of incorporating objects into the collections owned by museums. Besides the added value of donated pieces for collections, they also demonstrate the profound sense of citizenship and civic sensibility. They represent a meaningful act of generosity, which is, often, the main source of the objects that museums host, preserve, study and disseminate.
This important and remarkable estate is already at the inventory process stage.
In addition to being a historian and great lover of art and cultural heritage, Nestor de Sousa also stood out as the director of Carlos Machado Museum in Ponta Delgada between 1975 and 1985, having dedicated himself to this institution with great altruism.
The Regional Directorate for Culture informs that this and other events may be consulted in the Cultural Agenda of CulturAçores Portal at the following address: www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt.