In Our Care. The Keeper's Choice.

Álvaro Costa came to Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in 2016, despite during his childhood having spent many school afternoons in the Museum's garden drawing. The themes in the "Last Judgement" painting, Álvaro's favourite, mirror his sense of duty and responsibility. Performing different tasks as surveillance guard, surveillance coordinator and receptionist, he faces several challenges and unforeseen events that leave many stories to tell.

António Machado joined the Museum's staff in 2015. Living in Amadora, in the suburbs of Lisbon, everyday he rediscovers the city not on his way to work, but through the 18th century painting "View of Lisbon". This surveillance guard doesn't really know why he loves this artwork; maybe it's the colours, the multitude of details, the wide dimension? On his work routine, conversations with the visitors fill his days the same way this painting fills his eyes.

Carla Pereira has been in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga since 2017. She appreciates the tranquility of the surveillance work without neglecting the constant attention to the visitor. However, not everything goes well all the time and when unforeseen circumstances occur, only Carla and her colleagues can ensure the Museum's doors stay open. She remains enchanted by the art pieces she guards, even by those she knows well, but the one that delights her most is a particular sculpture of Virgin Mary, who smiles tenderly at her every day of work.

Jeanine Baptista came from Azores, from the Museu Carlos Machado, in 2021. The pieces she comes across every day, now at Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, bring her imagination to life, but it is the hypnotic (and maybe supernatural) effect of the Divine light in Domingos Sequeira's "Adoration of the Magi" that truly amazes Jeanine.

Dulce Gonzaga came to work for the MNAA in 2006, but her first time visiting the Museum was when she was 5 years old, by the hand of her grandfather. Raised near the 9 de Abril Garden, she came across the infamous painting "Hell" on one of those visits. More curious than haunted, she returns years later as an employee, to rediscover that strange image that stayed with her ever since.

Paulo Almeida had already been in MNAA in 2014 and returned permanently in 2019, when he joined the board of technical assistants. As a surveillance guard, he has passionately studied the pieces of the collection he guards. When his favourite pieces, a Jubako and a Powder Flask, are removed for maintenance, Paulo follows them into the Museum's archives... And we shall go with him.