Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris

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Date
The following is posted for Patrick De Wever. Please make any direct
replies to his request to his address or to his Museum. However, if you
would like to comment on the larger issues this situation raises, please
direct those comments to PaleoNet.


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Dear colleagues,

The Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle has existed for centuries. It
includes a zoological park, galleries and research laboratories. It is made
of different components, the Musee de l'Homme is one of them. Therefore,
since its creation in 1937 it had the triple mission of (1) carrying on
research (e.g., Levi-Strauss) (2) exhibition, and (3) collecting objects
from all the parts of the world. Some of the later are just modest
witnesses of cultural behaviors, some others are more artistic (e.g.,
African masks) and thus could be used in the art market. Recently it has
been suggested to the President of Republic that the gathering of some
parts of various museums would represent a modernization. These parts are:
Musee des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie + the collection of the Laboratory of
Ethnology (not the research lab).

The objects of the Musee des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie represent a
collection of 18,000 objects, collected without all the required
information concerning background, use, meaning etc. They were collected
for the art or curiosity value, not for their ethnological value. The
objects of the Musee de l'Homme represents a collection 300,000 objects
with all the required descriptive material for scientific use. Behind the
official reason of gathering the objects together is another reason, the
merchandising aspect. M. Kerchache who suggested the idea of gathering all
these objects is an "ancient" art merchant. And the act of gathering all
these objets would be accompanied by a huge amount of money to enrich this
collection (150 millions of F-francs ! which represent the salary of 100
persons for 10 years). This means they will buy a lot of objects from art
merchants (lucky persons who have collections of African masks .... the
prices have already increased very much in New York and will continue to
increase !

Behind this "punctual" action it is suspected that the French government
want to separate "non productive" centers in terms of money (such as
research laboratories), from productive ones (such as galleries) and we are
afraid of the future fund cutting in the Zoological garden from MNHN, then
the Grande Gallerie de l'Evolution, then ...

We therefore call for support to fight the merchandization of research and
museum activities in the form of support letters. We have already received
letters from many French scientists, cinemas & Nobel-price personalities
etc. We need as many letters of support as possible from all the parts of
the world; especially from institutions and individuals with as much
prestige as possible. I therefore ask you to help us to keep the integrity
of a Musee de l'Homme within the Museum National d'histoire Naturelle,
studying the human in its globallity, by its morphological, origins,
cultural and arts aspects in a whole

What can you do ? Just send a supporting letter, even if it is short, to
our Directeur :

Monsieur le Directeur du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle
57 Rue Cuvier
75 005 Paris, France

Please say that you think the study of man has to be done taking account of
man in his/her globallity with all the aspects, artistic as well as
cultural, as well as evolution morphology etc. etc. and that you support
the Director in its willingness to keeping the Museum unified. Sign with
your name + speciality + + your title(s) + any awards you may have
received. Each letter is important. It could be nice if you could send me a
copy. And obviously I am ready to provide more information if you need it.

Some ex. of what was received (for the style & content):

« I believe very strongly that the Musée must continue to be the world's
leading institution addressing the vitality important interface of the
social, cultural and bilogical aspects of being human. The future of life
on Planet Earth, including that of humankind is intimately connected to a
more complete understanding of humankind's place in nature. The Musée de
l'Homme is the best place possible for achieving this goal ... turning the
Musée de l'Homme into a museum of primitive art is a return to the past.
... » Pr. Donal Johanson, President de l'Institut de l'origine de l'homme,
Berkeley

« ... expressing their hopes that the Musee de l'Homme will continue to
serve all aspects of human science, biological, archeological and cultural.
» Ann Sidamon-Eristoff, Chairman of the American Mus. of Nat. History, N-Y

I do hope you will help us.

Sincerely,

Patrick de Wever

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Patrick DE WEVER
Professeur Laboratoire de Géologie Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
43 rue Buffon
75 005 Paris

tel. (33 1) 40 79 34 82
fax (33 1) 40 79 37 39
e-mail: dewever@mnhn.fr

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