MuseoMag: MuseoMag 2020_03

MuseoMag 2020_03

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Title:: MuseoMag

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Title:: MuseoMag 2020_03

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Title:: Waking a sleeping giant?: Counting and conditioning the former arms and fortress history collection

24 museomag 03 ‘ 2020 WAKING A SLEEPING GIANT? COUNTING AND CONDITIONING THE FORMER ARMS AND FORTRESS HISTORY COLLECTION Among the ongoing work on the collections of the museum is the project of re-inventorying, cataloguing and putting the weapons from the former Arms and Fortress collection of the National Museum of History and Art in the required state and place for conservation. In 1999, the main building of the National Museum of History and Art on Marché-aux-Poissons underwent a complete transformation. At the time, those objects from the collections stored in the nooks and crannies behind the exhibition wings and galleries of the mu- seum, hidden away from the public, were wrapped up for the time the remodelling would take. Fast forward ten years: The Documentation Center on the fortress of Luxembourg (CDF) is attached to the National Museum of History and Art and is preparing the opening of Musée Dräi Eechelen (M3E). The large majority of the arms collection has re- mained boxed or temporarily conditioned while several cut and thrust arms and firearms were unpacked to be put on display in the new museum. The guillotine of when the Duchy of Luxembourg was part of Revolutio- nary France, the executioner’s sword of the city of Lux- embourg, the jingling Johnny, a peculiar 19th century military instrument, and early modern guns burst back onto the scene and have since been an integral part of the permanent exhibition at M3E. EXHIBITIONS AND ACQUISITIONS That one part of the collection is lying dormant has not been a detriment to the expansion of the collection. Over the course of the years, specific acquisitions have been made to complete the collection and fill the gaps, amongst others, in the history of the armament of the fortress. Two wall guns, for example, have thus been bought in an effort to cover the technical development of siege firearms from the latter half of the 18th to the first half of the 19th century. Wall-guns are weapons of siege warfare. As their name suggests they are fired from the ramparts by the defending garrison. Their range of fire exceeds the range of regular rifles and even of light artillery. With a wall-gun, targets at a dis- tance of 500 to 700 meters could be engaged, even if © éric chenal We are not just dropping in to see what condition the objects are in, but, proceeding per weapon type, we are assuring their long- term conservation.

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