SFT-France Serves Legal Notice to Guimet Museum Over Tibet Name Erasure after 25 Weeks of Protest
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA 28 March: After a series of protests against the Guimet Museum for erasing the name “Tibet” in favour of colonial denominations such as the “Himalayan World” failed to elicit any meaningful response from the museum, Students for a Free Tibet-France(SFT) has served a legal notice to the Museum and the French Minister of Culture, demanding the museum reinstate Tibet in its rightful place in their collections of Tibetan art.
According to a press release on 27th March, after 25 weeks of protests, SFT France has sent a formal legal notice through its lawyers to the Guimet Museum and Rachit Dati, the French Minister of Culture, for the reinstatement of the name Tibet to all labels, publications, exhibitions and documents relating to the Museum’s Tibetan objects.
“As a public institution under the Ministry of Culture, Guimet Museum is bound by law to impartiality in its representation of art” the activist group said in a post on its official Instagram handle.
“We have met with Guimet President, Yannick Lintz, we’ve protested every single week, and still Guimet refuses to tell the truth, now we’re escalating, we’ve served legal notices to Guimet museum, the French Ministry of Culture demanding Guimet to reinstate Tibet in its rightful place in their collection of Tibetan art”, it added.
SFT has further stated, “This is a chance for Guimet Museum to do the right thing,” and that if they refuse, SFT “reserves the right to take further action.”
The activist group has described the Museum using the word Himalayan world instead of Tibet to describe its collections of Tibetan art as not just “historically and scientifically inaccurate but also supports the Chinese colonial narrative about Tibet.”
They particularly stressed that for the Guimet Museum, which houses the largest collection of Asian arts outside Asia, such change in nomenclature appears to be an attempt to erase Tibetan Culture and identity, with a potentially destructive impact on future generations
SFT- France President Tenzin Yangchen, who has been leading the weekly protests, said, “The Guimet Museum must honour its commitment to present Asian arts in all their richness and diversity, without censorship or historical distortion.”
The Tibetan community and its allies in France have been continuously protesting for the past 25 weeks following the name change in the Guimet Museum in September 2014.
However, Yannick Lintz, the president of the museum in France, has shown reluctance in advancing the situation and has remained firmly entrenched in her position, denying any action taken under pressure from a foreign country.
