goa the artistic influences of the main altarpiece at our lady of divine providence church in old goa came from italy and was made at the expense of the grand duke of tuscany cosimo the iii the altarpiece at our lady of the rosary church in old goa was fashioned to be an exact copy of the altarpiece of the dominican order in lisbonthese are just a few of multicultural heritage surprises that monica esteves reis a portuguese researcher in art history stumbled upon over the past decade during which she has been studying and documenting altarpieces pulpits liturgical objects sculptures and paintings among other church art for an extensive inventory on the heritage of the church in goa daman diu vasai thane and mumbai indias multicultural heritage keeps surprising me she tells stoifor her undergraduate programme project and doctoral degree reis has conducted her research in 417 locations in the archdiocese of goa and daman bombay and vasai studying 957 altarpieces over 200 pulpits and a countless record of other art objects belonging to the churchalthough a timeconsuming task the inventory is necessary towards conservation she says it requires measurements physical descriptions of each piece and detailed photographic documentation but inventory is the basis of heritage preservation in addition to documenting the state of conservation it also helps prevent theft or in extreme cases of a theft scenario to quickly recover the objects says reis who has a phd in history and heritage and has worked for a decade in the matters of shared heritage in indiaafter she received her phd in portugal and seeing her work the archdiocese of goa requested her help in preserving its heritagethe plan for the preservation of historical and artistic heritage of the archdiocese of goa phaha project was subsequently born reis is presently working on providing internal legislation towards preserving the built integrated and movable heritage and providing training to the local clergy in heritage management since the clergy is the first line of defence for heritage it makes sense that its members are provided with a broader level of understanding which is not provided to them as seminarians or during priesthood she says from the early 19th century up to 1930s the focus of research in former portuguese india was mostly on the missions religious orders confrarias and comunidades rather than on art objects within churches between the 1920s and 1960s there was substantial development in acquisition of information of the churchs assets we owe it mostly to the goan authors ricardo michael telles panduronga pissurlencar and francisco xavier gomes catao among others who consulted manuscripts and visited churches documenting assets in a series of short articles published in several periodicals she saysonly in the 1950s did portuguese researcher mario tavares chico and his team begin documenting and studying churches but mostly in old goa reis says this was an important moment for the understanding of multiculturality in artthe vatican established the pontifical commission for cultural heritage of the church to