The Deputy Director General for Urban Planning and Structural Planning Affairs in the municipality, Eng. Manal Al-Asfoor said the authority is responsible for registering and identifying historical and archaeological buildings in the country is the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature.
Al-Asfoor indicated that the authority has developed criteria for evaluating historical buildings, their architectural character and their construction status and added that four classification grades were set to reflect its historical importance and construction status, reports Al-Qabas daily.
Al-Asfoor added, in a letter addressed to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research regarding a request for a list of historical and archaeological buildings approved by the Historical Buildings Monitoring in the municipality, and to learn about the code concerned with the classification, survey and maintenance of historical buildings, that according to the Amiri Decree No. 11 of 1960 for antiquities and its amendments for the years 1976 and 1994 in the second Article, which states that “the task of preserving antiquities is entrusted to the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, and it alone is responsible for assessing the archaeological and historical character of things, sites and buildings, judging the importance of each antiquity and deciding what antiquities must be registered for their protection, maintenance, study and use.”
— First grade: buildings of high importance, all conditions and criteria apply to them, and are required to be preserved. Their ownership is expropriated if they are not expropriated, and they are transferred to the competent authorities in the state concerned with preserving historical buildings, namely the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature.
— Second grade: buildings of high importance, and all conditions did not apply to them, and the degree of their importance was raised due to the historical importance, the architectural form, and the degree of use of the building, and the expropriation of the buildings is required if they are not expropriated, and they are transferred to the competent authorities in the state concerned with preserving historical buildings, which is the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature.
— Third grade: buildings of medium importance, as a result of the loss of approximately 50 percent of the standards, and it is required to preserve and protect them, and careful consideration must be taken when making any modifications, taking into account the approval of the competent authority in the country.
— Fourth grade: Buildings that have no importance, and do not deserve protection and preservation, and can be removed, but after the building is lifted and all its important money in the building (doors – windows – architectural decorations – pictures – plans) is transferred to the Kuwait National Museum.