Building site of the collections of MuCEM (Museum of the Ages of Europe and the Mediterranean)

A building site of the collections is the implementation of a program museologic which allows the systematic study of the collections of a Musée, the realization of Récolement S, inventories precise and computerized objects of the museum, their catch of photographic view and the installation of campaigns of restoration (cleaning, treatments, even decontaminations) necessary for the Conservation and the legibility of works.

Origin of the system

Resulting from the world of industry, this system was already in force in the context of the serial processing of the books of libraries, in particular with the National library of France. Its transposition in the world of the museums is recent. It is Christiane Naffah, preserving and person in charge of the Building site of the collections of the Musée of the quay Branly, which is at the origin of the generalization of the term of " building site of the collections" in the world of the museums.

Legislative context of a building site of the collections

The law of January 4th 2002 reaffirms that the museums have the mission of preserving the collections of which they have the load. The Récolement is defined like a public and permanent operation. Article 12 stipulates that the collections of the museums of France are the subject of an inscription on a Inventaire and that it is proceeded to their Récolement every ten years. In article 3 of the decree of May 2nd, 2002 taken pursuant to the law of January 4th, 2002, it is indicated that the moral person owner of the Collections of a museum of France makes permanently proceed by the professionals mentioned to article 6 of the law of January 4th, 2002 referred to above to the operations necessary for the Récolement of the collections of which it is owner or agent and to the update of the inventory and the register of the deposits.

One can recall, out of administrative matter, that the behavior of the inventory of the museums is regulated since 1948 and that, on the scientific level, the Récolement is a practice which gives place, today like yesterday, with the summary or reasoned publication of Catalogs of collections. For more than twenty years, in France, in the museums a systematic policy of management, conservation and treatment of the collections has been gradually installation. We speak about the large building sites of museums initially initiated within the framework of the law programs starting from 1978, such Amiens, Lyon, Grenoble, Rouen, Montpellier, Dijon… for which it is necessary to attach the large building sites of the national museums the such Musée of Orsay, Large the Louvre, the Musée of the quay Branly and today the Museum of the Ages of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM)

The case of MuCEM (Museum of the Ages of Europe and the Mediterranean)

On decision of the Ministry for the culture and communication, the national museum of arts and traditions popular (MNATP) changes to devote to the Civilizations Europe and the Mediterranean with Marseilles. Before the Collections are not transferred to Marseilles, place of new MuCEM, an important update is to be made on each object constituting this Collection.

The building site of the collections of MuCEM deals with the totality of the Collections of the museum, that is to say approximately 250.000 objects present on the Parisian site and in the external reserves, and will treat later on the collections in two dimensions (Estampe S, sound archives…) To these Collections was added the deposit of the department “Europe” of the Musée of the Man, that is to say approximately 30.000 objects. They are thus approximately a million objects of size, form and materials extremely varied which will be treated in the building site.

The data processing sequence of the objects follows 5 stages headlights:

the Verification of the collections
the Traceability
the catch of measurement
the catch of sight
de-dusting and possible treatments

The verification

The circuit of the objects through the various units of the building site starts with the Récolement which is a precondition to the treatment of the object in the technical chain.

The work of Récolement began in June 2004. It consists in checking on the basis of the object the physical presence of this one in the stock rooms of the Musée. It is then elaborate a summary card of Récolement by confronting the object with existing documentation in the Musée. The computer tools used for these operations are the management software of the Collections Micromusée. The data are seized on the Micromusée card with an actualization of the heading " Verification ". It is possible to establish statistical data as well as lists of errors of marking, localization or creation of new Micromusée cards. At the time of the Verification, the report of state is carried out in order to detect possible degradations of the object and to point its brittlenesses in order to inform of them the people in charge with packing and transport, and to direct the type of conditioning and the precautions of displacement.

The traceability

The traceability of the objects is dealt with by the unit of Logistique, conditioning and movement of the objects, which intervenes at the beginning and the end of the data processing sequence. It makes it possible to locate the objects and to preserve a history of their movements. The person responsible for this unit allots a Code bar to each object. This number is recorded on Micromusée. The code stopping makes it possible to ensure the traceability of the objects during their course in the building site of the collections. That makes it possible to chart the preestablished stock rooms.

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