Former Minister of Culture Sergio Rouanet dies at 88

Former Minister of Culture Sergio Paulo Rouanet died on Sunday (Jul. 3) in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 88. He was the author of the Cultural Incentive Law and, together with his wife, the German-born philosopher Barbara Freitag, he founded the Rouanet Institute.

His passing was announced by the institute, in a note: “It is with great regret and sadness that we inform you about the death of the ambassador and intellectual Sergio Paulo Rouanet, on the morning of July 3. Rouanet battled against Parkinson's disease and dedicated himself until the end of his life to defending culture, freedom of expression, reason, and human rights. The institute will carry and extend its great legacy to future generations.”

The Rouanet Law, as it became known, allows individuals and legal entities to allocate part of the resources meant for the payment of Income Tax to the financing of artwork.

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Sergio Rouanet occupied, for about 30 years, Chair number 13 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL). “Rouanet was one of Brazil's great thinkers. He was indeed a multi-talented man. A great philosopher, a great essayist, attentive to issues of culture, politics, poetry, attentive to dialogue between peoples,” the former ABL president professor, and poet Marco Lucchesi said.

Current ABL president Merval Pereira said that “Sérgio Rouanet is an example of a public intellectual, who put his competence at the service of Brazilian culture, without abdicating ethical values.”

Rouanet was born in Rio de Janeiro on February 23, 1934, and became an ABL member on April 23, 1992.