UNUSUAL. The secret of a mysterious 120-year-old box soon to be revealed

The Ingres Bourdelle museum in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) has among its collections a metal box which would have belonged to the famous sculptor. Impenetrable, scientists are unable to know what it contains. X-ray analysis and a scanner should allow you to see more clearly.

It’s a small metal box that has been intriguing for over two decades. Completely rusted and somewhat damaged, it has however lost none of its value. Because this box belonged to the famous sculptor Anthony Bourdelleoriginally from Montauban (Tarn and Garonne).

Preserved today among the treasures of the collections of Ingres Bourdelle Museum, its contents are a mystery. Since it was found in 1970, no one has been able to open this tape.

For many years it was hidden in a statue dedicated to the dead created by Bourdelle himself. According to several experts, she could be 120 years old.

Sealed, no one knows what this box may contain. “When you lift it up you can clearly feel that there is something inside. something hard”, observes Florence Viguier, curator of the Ingres Bourdelles museum.

Supporting evidence: Grabs the box and shakes it, making the characteristic noise of a container containing a solid object hitting the walls. But what could this box contain? “Some coins? No“, eliminates a priori Like any hypothesis taken into consideration by the experts in charge.

But the mystery remains intact. “Legend has it that there would be writings. But I don’t know what they contain.says Florence Viguier, who confirms that no traces have been identified to date.

In an attempt to determine the container of the enigmatic box, An x-ray it will happen. The container will also be scanned. The Montauban hospital will carry out all these tests. According to the results of an initial analysis, the box would contain a round shaped object. It could be a medal or a coin.

But Jeanne Nicole Tsogou, head of the CHU’s radiology department in Montauban, acknowledges that the investigation must continue. “We will reconstruct the images and continue to work on them. That’s the advantage, with the scanner”.

Once the analyzes are complete, a team of restorers will recover the box. They will try to open it without breaking it. If successful, the contents of the box will be delivered to the Bourdelle museum, which thus hopes to fuel an exhibition dedicated to the sculptor’s intimacy. Its inauguration is scheduled for 2023.