Paris – On 1 October, the LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme), FIDH and International Campaign for Tibet met with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Musée du Quai Branly, Mr. Emmanuel Kasarhérou, and the Director of Heritage and Collections, Ms. Anne-Solène Roland, following a joint letter sent on 11 September. During the meeting, Mr. Kasarhérou gave assurances that the term “Xizang Autonomous Region” would be entirely removed from the catalog and labels of the permanent exhibition by the end of October.
Representatives of the Musée du Quai Branly explained that the term “Xizang Autonomous Region” had been included in their database since 2018 for internal use (for the traceability of collections) and that its appearance in public catalogs and on labels for the permanent exhibition was due to a technical problem that was an “unfortunate blunder” and “error,” which had infiltrated against the policy put in place by the Museum, of openness and dialogue towards the populations of the regions from which the works originated. No pressure was brought to bear by the Chinese authorities.
Vincent Metten, EU Policy Director for the International Campaign for Tibet, said: “We welcome the Musée du Quai Branly’s decision to remove the term “Xizang Autonomous Region” from its public catalog and cartels. We hope that the Musée Guimet will also revise its terminology and use “Tibet” instead of “Himalayan World” in exhibitions featuring Tibetan art. It is essential that international museums resist Beijing’s efforts to erase the name Tibet and continue to refer to Tibet in their public communications. In Tibet, an aggressive assimilation policy imposed by the Chinese Communist Party threatens to eradicate not only the term “Tibet”, but the entire culture and identity of the Tibetan people.”
Nathalie Tehio, President of the French Human Rights League (LDH) said: “It is understandable that Tibetans may suspect a priori that the Chinese authorities are pressuring French museums to remove the term Tibet from their collections, in view of the repression they face and the imposed policy of assimilation aimed at erasing their identity and culture. French museums must be vigilant not to feed this suspicion, even inadvertently. They must also resist attempts to erase threatened and repressed peoples around the world, where they exist.”
Antoine Madelin, Director of International Advocacy for the FIDH, adds: “The voices of Tibetans, who have borne the full brunt of the Chinese regime’s repression since the invasion of Tibet over 70 years ago, must be heard. After the Musée du Quai Branly, we invite the Musée Guimet to engage in a dialogue with the Tibetan community, to best represent the objects from its collections.”