The year of Armenia in France started on September 21 (Armenia’s Independence Day), 2006, and ended on July 14 (Bastille Day), 2007. Around 850 events under the motto “Armenia, my friend” took place in France within the framework of Armenia’s year.
The Armenian and French sides considered Armenia’s year in France a new and very important stage of the Armenia-France relations.
So in the context of that new stage, as Frederic Fringian, the director of the Armenian Museum in France, informs, the museum that has existed for 60 years and whose collection includes exclusive items of the Armenian cultural heritage, has already been ejected. As early as last July, the museum received a letter from the Directorate General for Cultural Values that the collection should be moved due to the construction work in the building. The director assured that it was a planned ejection. “The Armenian Year in France was a big cultural event bearing the name ‘Armenia, my friend.’ Doesn’t it exist anymore? The state’s word is obligatory, even consistent,” Fringian is surprised. www.aravot.am asked Ararat Aghasyan, the director of the Institute of Art, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Paravon Mirzoyan, the director of the National Gallery of Armenia, and Anelka Grigoryan, the director of the History Museum of Armenia, to comment on this. Anelka Grigoryan expressed pity during a conversation with www.aravot.am regarding what has happened. “I applied to Frederic this year to organize an exhibition, and he was anxious. He said that there were problems with the building and the exhibition. I am very sorry, it’s a pity, it’s a great pity; you told me very bad news.” Ms. Grigoryan promised to make a more detailed commentary in the short run.
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Ararat Aghasyan stated that he was not aware of that incident’s details, thus he was not ready to express an opinion, “As for the phenomenon, if there have been a museum, it has operated, proved to be good, and they expel it, naturally, it is a negative thing.”
Shortly afterwards, the director of the Institute of Art added: “It would be better, if not the scientific and educational institutions, universities, institutes, but the Ministry of Culture with its respective departments, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded, because the attitude of our authorities is more important. I haven’t been to that museum, I don’t know what values are kept there, if the subject matter was the Basmajian collection, I could say something, but in this case, I don’t know quite well how it operated, whether it proved to be good or not. On the other hand, if a cultural center is closed, it is bad, moreover, given the Armenia-France age-long connections.”
Paravon Mirzoyan didn’t know the details of the story regarding the Armenian Museum of France, since he had been on leave and had just returned from abroad. But he got angry when he heard the news, “Every museum has its history and significance, treating a museum like that is unacceptable.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
