ETHICS AND DEONTOLOGY

Água de Cal professionals and collaborators are linked to the conservator-restorer code of Ethics, defined by the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers Organisations (ECCO). The conservator-restorer works directly with cultural property and is personally accountable to it, the owner and the society. This responsibility means respecting the aesthetic, historical and spiritual significance of the heritage, as well as its physical integrity. Based on this understanding, we have defined a set of guidelines that reflect a commitment to the heritage, the profession and its clients:

• The cultural good and the code of Ethics are the main concerns of Água de Cal professionals;

• The goods’ social context and function are relevant in the definition of the intervention methodologies, but do not overlap values such as authenticity and respect for their history;

• The definition of authenticity is set by the existent documentation but also by the testimony of the responsible for the management of heritage - in this process we also recognize the importance of the dialogue with other professionals related to cultural heritage field;

• Conservation and restoration does not involve creation;

• Processes such as chromatic reintegration or volumetric reconstructions will respect pre-existing historical and aesthetic values. There will be no repaints or volumetric reconstitutions of elements which the original form was unknown;

• There won’t be no procedures to conceal damage or which translate into a misinterpretation of the history and aesthetic values of cultural goods;

• The written proposals of Água de Cal discriminate the aims and actions related to the conservation-restoration interventions, enabling the owner prior knowledge of the process;

• Depending on the intervention nature, different types of intervention can be done: actions that respect the minimum intervention principle (exclusively conservative) or actions that aim to refund the aesthetical reading, meaning and/or other inherent values to the objects, always respecting the authenticity and history and with no threats to its integrity;

• The technicians of Água de Cal provide all the information requested by the owners of cultural goods.

Payment on Time Commitment

Água de Cal is a subscriber of the «Payment on Time Commitment», an initiative promoted by ACEGE, IAPMEI, CIP, APIFARMA, INFORMA and CGD, that count with more than 1000 companies and several public entities. This commitment means that we respect the deadlines established by our suppliers, and the respect for the law nº. 62/2013 that regulates commercial transactions between companies and between companies and public entities. In 2021, we had and average payment period of 1,72 days.