In Occitania, museums are mobilizing to help Ukraine protect its works of art

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Since the start of the war, Ukrainians have also struggled to save their heritage and works of art from Russian bombardments. To help them, museums are getting organized to bring equipment to the site to protect and transport these works.

The loads arrive from six departments of Occitanie. Materials for the protection of works of art donated by the museums of six departments of the region and centralized in Toulouse. Almost ten tons which will be transported to the border between Poland and Ukraine in a few days. “You have wooden or plastic crates that are used to pack all the paintings and large works. You have archive boxes which are PH neutral and which are used to store either paper or small objects, and which above all allow you to keep the objects for a very long time without altering them“, explains Claire Léger, manager of the collections of the museums of Haute-Garonne.

It is the association Bouclier bleu France, branch of the Blue Shield International network, specialized in the protection of works of art, which supervises the collection, organized with the cFrench national committee of Icom, international organization of museums. For this collection in Occitania, it is the Departmental Museum of Resistance and Deportation in Toulouse which houses all this equipment in its basement before joining a national convoy. “All the materials donated by the museums of Occitania, the archives too, arrive here and will leave for Paris at the end of the week. For me, it really makes sense that it is the Museum of Resistance that is carrying out this action, this action of resistance against the oppressor, I find that it is very symbolically strong and I am very moved“, testifies Camille Haumont, the general secretary of Blue Shield France.

Since the start of the war, Ukraine has been trying to save its heritage. The monuments are protected, with sandbags in particular. The museums are emptying and some works are already managing to be transported to European countries, others should follow thanks to all these materials. In France, for all these actors of culture and heritage, participating in these convoys is a form of commitment, as Anne Boyer, vice-president of the Haute-Garonne departmental council in charge of culture, points out. “By saving their culture, you also save Ukraine somewhere, you save the history of Ukraine, you save what it is, what it represents this nation and I believe that is very important“.


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