English Translation by Victoria Selwyn, edited by Lysa Hochroth
Collections
The ³French Exception² in Question
A new bill challenges the long-established French protection of national
cultural heritage
French museum professionals, mindful of their remit to safeguard and impart
cultural heritage, take a stand against the bill submitted in October 2007
by Mr. Jean-François Mancel, Member of General Assembly from the Oise
department (second constituency).
This bill claims to grant cultural establishments ³genuine freedom of
management² by enabling them to commercialise certain works by selling or
leasing them. It challenges a principle to which museum professionals,
associations of friends of museums and most donors are very attached: that
of the inalienability of public collections.
This dangerous bill aims to create a new distinction between two categories
of objects in French museum collections: ³National Treasures², which are to
remain inalienable, and ³freely usable works², which can be commercialised.
This distinction sets up a radical hierarchy - at an arbitrary point in time
- between masterpieces and works judged to be secondary. But the history of
museums shows that such value judgements are relative: the Musée d'Orsay and
the
Musée du Quai Branly would never have been created if the contents of the
reserves of the Louvre and the Musée de l¹Homme had been sold when neither
³firemen² (i.e. ³naïve²) painters nor Primitive art were popular and had
market value. Such a distinction also runs the risk of discrediting whole
swathes of historical, archaeological, ethnographic, industrial and maritime
heritage, to which our fellow-citizens are attached because they feel
closely connected with it.
We set store by the principle of the inalienability of collections because
it is closely linked with the ethics of collections and of the professions
which work together to manage, conserve and enhance the intrinsic value of
these collections. This principle, on which the sense of a shared collective
heritage is founded, is one of the factors which have motivated private
individuals to add to public heritage over the past two centuries, by
generous donations or bequests. Can we so lightly abuse their trust and
renege on commitments made decades ago to conserve, study and show to its
best advantage the inheritance they entrusted to us to hand on to future
generations?
France's rich public collections drive a cultural policy that is the envy of
many other countries. They are one of France's chief cultural attractions
and indirectly support an exceptionally strong tourist industry. Is there no
recognition that this heritage has been built up over two centuries and that
it is by this gradual process of accumulation that our country has acquired
a network of public collections that is virtually without equal?
The argument in support of commercialising our collections is that museums
require public funding and overcrowded reserves might represent a burden on
resources. In the short term, selling works would bring in the funding
cultural institutions require in order to develop. However, to take this
view is to underestimate the vital importance of works which are not on
permanent display. First of all, these are the pieces used for most
temporary exhibitions and loans resulting in fruitful collaborations between
museums within France and internationally. It ignores the fact that works
not on display are nonetheless being researched, studied and documented.
Furthermore, the knowledge amassed in this process allows for these works to
become accessible and to be exhibited in the future. In addition, museums
have an educational and a social role to play that have nothing to do with
mere commercialisation of their works.
There remains the issue of the automatic growth and development of
collections which results from careful conservation and the broadening in
recent decades of the notion of cultural heritage. Mindful of their
responsibilities, for several years now, museum professionals have been
considering how to manage the heritage in their care in a more dynamic way.
The Law on the Museums of France, which has been incorporated into the Code
du patrimoine (Heritage Code), has provided us with legal instruments that
enable us to unlist, transfer and circulate works from the collections of
the Museums of France. These instruments, which have yet to be extensively
used, afford us a range of action within the framework of existing
legislation.
Let us make more imaginative use of the scope this Law offers in order to
share, circulate, exchange and pass on public collections. Let us endeavour
to make even more efforts and enhance closer cooperation with other
institutions than we have done so far, for example to avoid unnecessary
duplication. Let us seek ways of improving our management of reserve
collections and circulating them via deposits and exhibitions. Let us pursue
the reflection on ³study collections² to be permanently included in
inventories only after a waiting period in which their merits are evaluated
with due consideration.
We call for a large-scale gathering of museum professionals to discuss and
formulate proposals to encourage a dynamic, thorough approach to the
management of France's public collections, which abides by our profession's
core moral and ethical principles, of which the inalienability of public
collections is a cornerstone.
________________________________________
Dominique Ferriot
Chairwoman of the French National Committee of the International Council of
Museums (ICOM-France)
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Julie Guiyot-Corteville
President of the Fédération des Écomusées et des Musées de Société (French
Federation of Ecomuseums and Social Museums)
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Christophe Vital
President of the Association générale des Conservateurs des Collections
publiques de France (Association of Curators and Conservators of French
Public Collections)
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________________________________________
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