ABOUT THE DECREE ON THE PROTECTION OF CULTURAL VALUES — MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

As it is well-known, Poland can boast o f unique in the world initiatives on preservation, revaluation and protection o f cultural values. Despite o f that, the number o f historic buildings in the country is getting lower and lower, while the number o f monuments completly ruined and devastated or just neglected is increasing. Main causes o f failures in counteracting the devastation o f historic buildings are insufficient repressive measures on the one hand and shortcomings o f the law binding in the field o f the protection o f monuments on the other. The amendment o f the Decree of February 15, 1968 ,,On the Protection o f Works o f Art and on Museums” (Dz. U. No 10, item 48) has thus become a must and should be aimed at raising the rank o f decisions taken by conservators and securing their full execution. The Decree o f June 17, 1966 on executive procedures in the administration (Dz. U. No 24, item 151) secures the execution, i.e. carrying out o f the order or ban expressed in the conservator’s decision. So, the conservator is not powerless against checks on part o f users from either a private or socialized sector; he may simply enforce their submission. However, none o f conservators has as yet made in fact use o f that weapon and thus in practice the law binds on paper only. As for penalty repression applied in cases of devastation, destroying and lawless demolition o f old buildings, then we must consider it as unsatisfactory or totally non-existent. The conservator o f historic monuments should more thoroughly examine every singular instance o f a historic monument being devastated, with a view to advise o f it the public prosecutor’s office. The system of the protection o f works o f art against devastation and their irreversible loss is composed o f a few elements at least. In the first place we should mention economic and financial resources allocated for that purpose, proper personnel o f highly qualified conservators in the number meeting actual needs, providing them with adequately equipped workshops, further promotion o f the front o f social support for the idea o f the protection o f historic monuments, and finally, the law binding in this field. The law plays a significant, albeit not all important role in the system. A successful functioning o f the entire system depends on a faultless operation o f individual elements, mutually dovetailed and harmonously interlinked. There is no need o f exchanging any o f the elements and replacing it with a nee one, because as yet it has not been installed and one cannot say how it will be operating in future. And so, instead of amending let us all try fully observe the rules