Members should support the following petition regarding saving the Brussels Army Museum display and technical departments. Here is a link, and following that, details from FESAC’s email about the event at the Museum on the 19th January at which we expect to be represented. https://www.change.org/p/au-gouvernement-f%C3%A9d%C3%A9ral-hold-up-op-het-legermuseum-sur-le-mus%C3%A9e-de-l-arm%C3%A9e-on-the-museum-of-the-armed-forces Please contact me if you have any questions. Derek Stimpson chairman@hbsa-uk.org Message from FESAC Chairman, Stephen Petroni:- I have just received some disturbing news from our friend Paul Dubrunfaut, who has been curating the arms at the Brussels Military museum for several years. Paul gave us his full support when we were under attack by the EU Commission, having agreed to my proposal to host a number of IMCO MEPs to the museum and visit the reserve collection to make the understand the importance of conserving firearms in their original working condition. It is Paul who now needs our support. Let me quote what he has told me after I responded to his first email. "Since the 1st of May 2017 the Belgian Government has decided to create a new parastatal organisation called the "War Heritage Institute" to absorb our Royal Military Museum and other federal institutions as the Fort of Breendonck (a WW II Memorial), The Institution for War Invalids etc. This to limit the cost to only one organisation and at the same time to diminish the importance of the scientific job done by the curators of the former Military Museum (they want to control everything we'll do in the future i.e. research, publications, acquisitions, conservation etc.).
I am forwarding Paul’s invitation to us and the link to sign the international petition to save the historical and technical galleries of the Royal Military Museum in Brussels: http://tervueren-montgomery.eu/Site-FR/MRA-Cinquantenaire-journee-internationale-19-janvier.htm Paul’s concern is that he will retire in four years’ time and this fight could be his last to save his beloved Museum. He firmly believes in his mission to preserve examples of 19th and early 20th century military artefacts and he is counting on our support as people who truly appreciate such efforts. |