In an official statement, the minister of culture, Graça Fonseca, said that she had decided to appoint Patrício to the board following the resignation of João Nuno Azevedo Neves, the previous government nominee.

The news follows a report from the Jornal Económico newspaper that Neves, who was appointed by Luís Filipe Castro Mendes, the minister of culture in the previous, centre-right government, had submitted his resignation to the ministry last week.

The motive for his departure, according to the newspaper, is the process by which the approximately 1,000 works of art amassed by the media magnate José ‘Joe’ Berardo that have been seized by the authorities, are to be kept.

The bulk of the works remain at the Lisbon’s Centro Cultural de Belém, where the Berardo Collection Museum is housed, and where many are on display.

The seizure of the collection was ordered by a Lisbon court as a result of a lawsuit by a number of institutions seeking replayment for loans taken out by José Berardo.