In the St. Thomas College building, which has been empty for over ten years, there is a statue on the floor which must have fallen from its pedestal near the wall. The late Mr. Norbert Hendrikse pointed this out to NAAM, considering his ties with the school. With his wife Solange Hendrikse and Mr. Valdemar Marcha, NAAM has succeeded in rescuing another statue at St. Thomas College.

NAAM is thankful for this spontaneous help from CWM (Curaçaose Wegenbouw Maatschappij), which on hearing about this situation immediately saw to it that the statue was carefully lifted and taken to NAAM to have it conserved.

Colegio Santo Tomas, one of the first educational institutions in Curaçao -which was founded in 1888 and later became St. Thomas College-, is one of the first boarding schools in Curaçao. In 1902, it became a day school, and its doors were closed in 2000. The Roman Catholic School Governors gave NAAM the opportunity in 2000 to rescue many artifacts of St. Thomas College.

This was the trigger for NAAM to go and look for more artifacts from the past at other schools. NAAM possesses from school desks, bells, rulers, pointers and maps to books and pictures of saints from various schools.

This large statue is a great addition to the collection. The intention is for NAAM to conserve this statue and keep it until the St. Thomas College building gets the status of protected monument.