The inventory of the collections of the Museum of printing on fabrics of Mulhouse, launched two years ago after the discovery of “massive thefts”announces “titanic”said Thursday the team in charge of the site.
The Fabric Printing Museum (Mise) would have “80,000»pieces approx,«including several million textile samples», dated from the XVIIIe century to the present day, indicated Alexia Fontaine, the new scientific director of the site of the collections of the Alsatian museum, during a first progress report.
Numbers very likelyobsoleteand intended to evolve as an inventory that the museum had never carried out methodically, added Alexia Fontaine, who will lead this project launched in 2020 for three years. It had been set up by the State which had initiated a procedure of “formal notice» after the discovery in 2018 of «massive thefts» of pieces within his fund, heir to the Mulhouse textile industry and rich in a collection of prints unique in the world.
Read alsoThe mystery of the missing fabrics from the Mulhouse Museum
In addition to this inventory and verification work, this project also includes restoration and digitization actions. However, it only concerns a small part of its reserves, those contained in the Document Use Service (SUD), which is particularly affected by thefts. The site has not yet established the number of stolen parts, according to Alexia Fontaine.
In total, the SOUTH comprises “1.303» textile sample books, «20,000» of these samples as well as «20.056“pieces of graphic art (preparatory drawings, sketches…), she indicated. “570 pounds” and “6.084“pieces of graphic arts have to date been”diagnosed and reconditioned“, indicated Alexia Fontaine, who could not specify the time required to complete this project. “I am recruited for three years and to finish“, however, she told AFP.
“The construction site is titanic» and the sums injected by the State, in addition to those provided by the local authorities, are «monumental», underlined Alain Charrier, sub-prefect of Mulhouse. According to the regional director of cultural affairs (DRAC) of the Grand Est, Delphine Christophe, the State has thus invested 550,000 euros. The work is at a “significant stage of advancement“, she underlined. It will also be used to feed the investigation carried out by a Mulhouse judge. About fifty books that had been stolen were thus found, including several on a public classifieds site, said Alexia Fontaine.
The case broke out in 2018. To date, only one person is indicted for theft and fraud, the former curator of the museum, Jean-François Keller, who admitted the theft of several pieces. “The letters rogatory which had been launched by the investigating judge are now in his office”we said to the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office, referring to possible “auditions” coming.
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