After having been named and shamed for their abject subservience to Xi Jinping, Musée Guimet and Musée du quai Branly are trying to save their reputation. Or was it just a clerical mistake? A misunderstanding, perhaps? Having been accused of abjectly “bowing to China’s demands to rewrite history and erase peoples,” two leading Paris museums are trying to back off.
What happened, exactly? On September 1, 2024, “Le Monde” published an op-ed signed by la crème de la crème of French academic Tibetologists and experts of Asian art accusing the Musée Guimet and the Musée du quai Branly of having sold their soul to Xi Jinping. The Musée du quai Branly had changed the name “Tibet” to “Xizang,” according to Beijing’s diktat, in its catalogues. The Guimet had changed the title of its “Tibetan” rooms to “Himalayan World” rooms.