Staff from National Museum of Natural History oppose move to Dijon for collections, launch petition with 7,000 signatures

When the Dijon municipality applied for the call for expressions of interest from the National Museum of Natural History launched in early 2022, it was to win. So that the city of the dukes is chosen to host, in a new branch, certain collections now kept at the historic headquarters of the prestigious institution, in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. And, among the 39 candidates, it was his that was deemed the best. Since then, Dijon finds itself in spite of itself in a petition on the Change.org website signed by more than 7,000 people in a few weeks.

The link between collections and research broken?

Four staff from the Museum (lecturers, professor and technical manager) are behind it. If they have nothing against Dijon, they ask for the total abandonment of the moving project, arguing that it would break the link between collections and research. “Our work on the collections is daily. With the technical teams in Dijon and the research teams in Paris, how can we plan to maintain the links that are essential for good management and enhancement of the collections? “, worries Nicolas Puillandre, lecturer at the Museum. He and his colleagues Sarah Samadi, Laure Corbari and Pierre Lozouet would like the collections at the Jardin des Plantes to be maintained. “There are regulatory and space constraints,” he admits. “But we have ideas, which we have not yet shared and confronted with management’s arguments. Believing that they have not been heard so far, they are asking for “the opening of a dialogue, with a collective reflection involving the staff on the best response to bring to improve the conditions of conservation of the collections and the work of the teams” .

The transfer of certain collections justified by security and regulatory reasons

“We have been holding dozens of meetings with the teams concerned for more than two years, briefings are held regularly with representatives of all of the Museum’s trades. We wanted the most open, transparent and broad process possible. Could we have done more? Maybe. Differently? Without a doubt. But a solution that satisfies all of the staff does not exist”, defends Jérôme Gestin. For the Deputy Director General of the Museum, the transfer of part of the collections is inevitable. “The naturalist, mineral, plant and animal collections are growing, we need space to continue our activities. There are also security and regulatory reasons: part of the collections are kept in alcohol, and the volume of alcohol that we store in the zoo library located under the Jardin des Plantes is above the regulatory threshold,” he says.

“We are not going to rush things”

“Continuing to welcome scientific visitors to this underground reserve is no longer possible. The Museum now has 13 sites, some are in the region and things are going well. Other ways of working must be found, and this project will accelerate the process of digitizing the collections. In some cases, an image of excellent quality can save you having to travel to consult a collection,” adds Christine Lefèvre, Deputy Director General for Collections.

The management emphasizes that “the dialogue with the teams that have initiated this petition is nourished and constant”. “There are a lot of questions about the choice of site and the organization that will be put in place, and they are legitimate. It’s a huge project – between 80 and 100 M€ – very demanding for the establishment, so we’re not going to rush things and continue to work. It’s a ten or fifteen-year project that will be completed in the first part of the next decade, after the construction of the infrastructure and an exceptional move,” assures Jérôme Gestin.