Cultural Patrimony Alerts: Italian Pollution Risks, French Deaccession Discussions

This could be a new talking point for those in the "universal museum" camp, who argue that it's not always best to return antiquities to their countries of origin. ANSA, the Italian news agency, reports:

Invisible agents are attacking precious works of art in Italian museums, dissolving paintings and eroding statues, according to a report published on Tuesday by a leading environmental group. The study..., which tested air quality inside 15 museums across Italy, warned that dust, ozone and poisonous gases are causing irreversible damage to the country's cultural heritage.

And in France, cultural heritage may be eroded by another force---deaccessioning. Agence France-Presse reports:

Culture Minister Christine Albanel announced the launch of a study mission on "the possibility of relinquishing ownership of works in public collections," due to report back to the government early next year. Since the 16th century, any work that enters a French national museum collection has been considered legally "inalienable"---meaning it can only be sold or given away after a lengthy procedure to delist it....

"To question the principle of inalienability would be a catastrophe," Jean-Pierre Cuzin, former head of the Louvre painting department, told the French magazine "Journal des Arts." A museum was not a business, he said. "Either you sell secondary works and you raise little money, or you sell your major works---raise lots of money---but you have no museum left."

But the current stringent procedures that much be followed before objects can leave French collections yesterday prevented the Museum of Natural History, Rouen, from relinquishing to New Zealand a preserved, tattooed Maori head that was to have been handed over yesterday.

The Associated Press reports:

On the eve of the event, French Culture Minister Christine Albanel issued a statement saying Rouen did not follow the proper procedures and asking an administrative court to halt the transfer.

"Such a decision requires the advice of a scientific committee, whose role is to verify that there is no unjustified damage to national heritage," the statement said.

Most major museums, whatever their general policies on deaccessioning, recognize that human remains constitute a special category and should be returned to their native societies.

But although it may be hard for objects to leave French museums, it will soon be easier for people to get in: A number of French museums have announced that they will experiment with a free admissions policy. AFP reports:

Fourteen French museums and chateaux, including the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts, will offer free entry from Jan. 1 as part of a trial hoped to bring about a cultural revival....In Paris, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Pompidou modern art museum and the new Quai Branly museum of tribal arts will take limited part in the trial, each opening for free to 18- to 25-year-olds one night of the week.