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- 1. A room in the Musée Gadagne
(the one with the painted ceiling)
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
In four articles, we have covered the entire Musée Gadagne (ill. 1). And the results are distressing. On the day of our visit, we were able to meet Xavier de la Selle, the museum’s curatorial director. In response to our criticisms, he gave us a number of answers, starting by saying that the Musée Gadagne is a "city museum", not a fine arts museum. He referred us to the work of Jean-Louis Postula, who wrote Le musée de ville, histoire et actualité published in 2016 by Documentation française, and to a recent book, which can be consulted online, which according to him "takes stock of European city museums and their transformations in recent years": European City Museums by Tim Marschal and Joan Roca, which can be read online here->https://www.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/sites/default/files/activitats_pdf/2023-09/EuropeanCityMuseums.pdf].
Let’s be clear: we have no desire to read either of these books, because we don’t need fancy theories to know what a museum should be. A museum must first and foremost be based on its collections and display them. This is one of the essential missions given to it by the museum law, which must be applied in France, rather than the theories of Jean-Louis Postula, Tim Marschal and Joan Roca.
Next, again from Xavier de la Selle, is "an extract from [their] scientific and cultural project unanimously approved by Lyon City Council in May 2022 and validated by the Ministry of Culture":
" 1. Reaffirm the Musée d’Histoire de Lyon as the city’s museum
The vocation of the Lyon History Museum is reaffirmed as a museum of the city, whose collections, scientific discourse and museographic presentation must enable its visitors, both residents and tourists, to understand their city and situate themselves in space and time, by linking urban history to their own personal journey. As Emile Leroudier noted in the introduction to his Organisational Plan for the Musée Historique de Gadagne (1923), "this establishment must be the museum of the history of Lyon. The collections on display should aim less to present the visitor with a series of pieces, artistic or otherwise, but of local interest, than to retrace in his mind the history of our city, both from the point of view of the successive transformations of the city, and from that of the public and private life of its inhabitants, at the same time as giving him an accurate idea of its economic and social development"."
Needless to say, even this "initial political project" has not been fulfilled, since of the "all the collections on display" there are in fact almost no collections, essentially reproductions. As for the "artistic" exhibits, we have seen that there are virtually none, and we would challenge anyone to "understand the city" from what is on display.
Xavier de la Selle adds: "The Musée d’Histoire de Lyon is therefore first and foremost a city museum, comparable to other museums of this type in France (Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, history museums in Nantes, Strasbourg and Marseille) and in Europe (museums in London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc.). Its theme is the city itself, i.e. a geographical object. The historical discipline remains predominant, insofar as storytelling remains the main lever for mediation".
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- 2. The part of the Musée Gadagne devoted to Lyon in Roman times
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
The historical discipline is predominant? Yet, apart from the errors (three hills in Lyon, when there are only two), the omissions are nonetheless innumerable. Why is there nothing about Lyon in Roman times, apart from a miserable panel (ill. 2) where we learn, among other things, that "the qualities of the site of Lyon [...] did not escape the attention of the Romans, who decided to set up a colony here", the sole of a child’s shoe and a set of Gallo-Roman keys? At what point do we talk about Lyon’s importance as a religious city, whose archbishop was appointed "Primate of the Gauls" by the Pope as early as the 11th century, an essential aspect of the city (but one that undoubtedly did not please the municipality)? What can we learn about Lyon’s urban planning and, for example, the existence of the traboules? ? The architecture of Lyon’s monuments? Lyonnais gastronomy? We could multiply the examples: in reality, this museum teaches us almost nothing about Lyon and its history.
Even if the other museums mentioned by Xavier de la Selle were of the same ilk as the Musée Gadagne, that would be no justification. We’re not familiar with the museums in London, Amsterdam and Barcelona, but we’ll be sure to visit them as soon as possible. We visited the Château des Ducs de Bretagne (where the Musée d’Histoire de Nantes is located) a long time ago and have no memories of it, apart from the dreadful restoration it has undergone.
We do, however, know the Musée Carnavalet, the Musée d’histoire de Strasbourg and the Musée d’histoire de Marseille.
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- 3. France, late 13th-early 14th century
Virgin (?)
Pierre
Marseille, Musée d’Histoire
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 4. France, c. 1599
Pierre de Libertat
Marble
Marseille, Musée d’Histoire
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Despite all the criticisms we made when it reopened (see this article), and even though its museography and the number of works on display are very disappointing, the museum’s collections are still presented. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Musée Gadagne.
The Musée de Strasbourg, even if it is also highly critical, especially from the point of view of its museography - which we were quick to point out (see article) - again has nothing in common with the ’new’ Musée Gadagne...
As for the Musée d’histoire de Marseille, it is nothing like the one in Lyon. There are many works of art on display, as the photographs illustrating this article (ill. 3 to 6) show. Perhaps there are criticisms to be made, but we visited it in 2020 without thinking for a moment of writing an article to denounce the scandal that it would constitute.
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- 5. France, 17th-century
Two Angels Holding an Urn
Marble
Marseille, Musée des Beaux-Arts
(on long-term loan to the Musée d’Histoire de Marseille)
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
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- 6. Eugène Guillaume (1822-1905)
Commerce and Navigation, 1857
Plaster
Marseille, Musée des Beaux-Arts
(on long-term loan to the Musée d’Histoire de Marseille)
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
Let’s repeat what should be the ABC for a curator: a museum must be based on its collections. And those of Gadagne are said to be extremely rich. "Said to be" because they are largely unpublished and because no database is available online, and no paper catalogue.
According to our sources, the museum has an exceptional collection of medieval sculptures from abbeys in the Lyon region. The only positive point: Xavier de la Selle has assured us that these works will be presented at an exhibition in 2025 and that this will be permanent, with the sculptures thus returning (to the basement where they are stored) to the permanent tour.
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- 7. Pierre Marie Mongis
Circular dish with mantling, 1739 or 1759
Earthenware
Lyon, Musées Gadagne - See the image in its page
But where will the Lyon earthenware (ill. 7), the Lyon furniture from the 15th to the 19th century, of which the museum has a very important collection, the pewter or the silverware, of which the 1982 Répertoire des musées et collections publiques de France tells us that the museum has an important collection, be exhibited? Not to mention the Nevers earthenware, for which the museum is also very rich. Nevers is not Lyon, so for the director there is no reason for it to be displayed in this museum. This is absurd. A museum should display all its collections, which are also evidence of its history, a concept that should speak for itself in a museum of... history.
However, as Xavier de la Selle told us, its objective is the opposite of that of a museum: the permanent collections are not intended to be presented as part of the tour and will only be shown in temporary exhibitions, which will resume in 2025!
It comes as no surprise that the City Council and the Mayor are delighted with such a programme. But the fact that the Ministry of Culture, via the DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, was able to approve it leaves us stunned.
Particularly in a city that has already recently seen a museum closed and crated, the Hôtel-Dieu (see article), a scandal that continues, that almost lost its Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs (see articles), that was not saved by the city (Gérard Collomb, former mayor, didn’t give a damn about it, when he said about it: "I’ve already closed one museum, now I can close two"), but by the region and its president Laurent Wauquiez.
On a positive note, however: "the museum team is currently working on a project to put the collections database online by 2025". Hopefully, the museum’s lack of knowledge of its collections will come to an end. Let’s hope that this will force politicians to demand that its riches be shown to the public on a permanent basis. Perhaps the worst aspect of this affair is the contempt shown to the people of Lyon and other visitors, in thinking that collections of works of art are too good for them.