(Quebec) Dozens of elected officials, historians and personalities from the museum world are asking Quebec to reverse its decision to sell the Maison Chevalier to the Tanguay family, a gesture which they believe amounts to “selling off our heritage”.
Several of them had made an appointment Monday in front of the imposing stone building planted in front of the River, near the famous rue du Petit-Champlain. They had summoned the media in order to convince the Musée de la civilization to reverse its decision to sell the Maison Chevalier.
The Minister of Culture and Communications, Nathalie Roy, “must assume her responsibilities and step back on this sale,” demanded the former PQ MP Agnès Maltais.
“She must do it with honor, as the Minister of Health did recently, because he was going into a wall. It is going into a wall and it is selling off our heritage ”, launched Mme Maltais, herself a former Minister of Culture.
She’s not the only one. The Société historique de Québec sent Monday to Mme Roy a letter signed by 177 people, including the former director of the Musée de la civilization Michel Côté. In question ? The Museum’s recent decision, endorsed by the government, to sell the heritage house built in 1752.
The buyer, the Tanguay Group, belongs to the family of the same name, well known in the capital. He intends to preserve the place and make it the headquarters of his real estate division. Between 30 and 40 employees could work in the building at the end of the transaction, which is to be finalized at the end of October. Its amount is still unknown.
“Mr. Legault wants with his” Blue spaces “to put forward the history of French America and abandons the jewel, the first” Blue Space “if one can express it thus”, launched the president of the Historical Society of Quebec, Alex Tremblay Lamarche.
“With the closure of the Place Royale Interpretation Center, what are we left with to showcase the history and heritage of the cradle of French America? ”
A sale “on the sly”
The Musée de la civilization, which owns the Maison Chevalier, began the sale process in 2018. However, the players in the field and elected officials say in unison that they did not know anything about it. They learned about it last Wednesday, when the media reported the transaction, approved by the government and listed in black and white in the Official Gazette.
“Why sell on the sly? Since when has the government sold off, sold its buildings without a call for proposals, without anyone knowing, without debates? “Asked Mme Maltese.
Liberal Christine St-Pierre agrees. “The Minister must remind the Board of Directors of the Museum to order, she must ensure that this sale is canceled, it must go back,” said Monday Mr.me St-Pierre, official opposition critic for culture.
The Musée de la civilization argues that the Maison Chevalier “was not suitable for museum conservation”, that it was not accessible to people with reduced mobility and that it was mainly used for the rental of offices and rooms. meeting.
“The low attendance rate at Maison Chevalier did not justify major investments to correct all these shortcomings, which would have required large-scale work,” explained the spokesperson for the Museum, Anne-Sophie Desmeules.
The Tanguay Group, for its part, undertakes to preserve the building. “We are important property managers. We know what we’re getting into. We intend to take good care of it. We are aware of the responsibilities with which this comes ”, assured Alexandre Tanguay, president of the Tanguay real estate group and son of businessman Jacques Tanguay.
But heritage advocates regret that the building is no longer accessible to the public. The Société historique de Québec is asking that the Musée de la civilization be more funded, so that it can restore a museum vocation to the Maison Chevalier.
“We are in a vicious circle resulting from the underfunding of the Musée de la civilization,” believes Alex Tremblay Lamarche.
On Monday, Minister Nathalie Roy was not available for an interview with Press.