panaji the daring robbery at the christian art museum in old goa and the loss of priceless antiques has triggered shock among heritage lovers who blamed it on the weak security system unidentified persons strangled a 55yearold lone guard at the museum in st monica convent at around 630pm on wednesday and committed the theft after grabbing the keys from him police sources said five gold antiques from the museum once projected by its management as a unique showcase of indoportuguese art were taken away from a monument of the church complex at the world heritage site heritage lovers and conservationists have raised several queries about the management of the museum alleging that the lack of strict security may have exposed the artefacts to pilferage the issues of safety and security are of prime importance in the management of a museum as they are prime targets for the heists says savia viegas a fullbright scholar who was attached to smithsonian museum usa for almost a year the nuns from st monica convent called the police after they heard the guards cries as he was apparently being strangled actually there should have been a device with the watchman which should have triggered a public scare or woken the whole neighbourhood especially when museums are located in isolated places like this viegas said the daring robbery also raises questions about providing security to security personnel the best option was to install a cctv with a recording facility to keep track of persons entering the premises roundtheclock damodar mauzo a member of the curatorial committee of a new museum at the old secretariat said raising another aspect victor hugo gomes a former founder curator of the christian art museum said it is risky to entrust the keys to security guards in the present setup should our priceless heritage be left to the mercy of security guards with unknown credentials he asked gomes alleged that the thieves knew how the museums locking systems operated retaining the security personnel for more than seven years as in the present case is not a done thing he said agreed perry goes a bangalorebased goan collector of vintage items the fact that it didnt take much for the thieves to walk away with the antiques shows that the security was weak however a source attached to the museum management explained that the keys were given to the security guard due to frequent short circuits at the museum the keys were given in the eventuality of some electrical problem occurring the source said the management has installed cctvs in the museum but admitted that it has no recording facility regarding the annual allocation of 3 lakh towards the maintenance of security the source added it is utilized to defray the expenditure of the security guards monthly wages the prestigious project aimed at conserving rich indoportuguese art was initiated by the goa archdiocese around 1988 supported by calouste gulbenkian foundation lisbon indian national trust for art and cultural heritage intach