历史学家、三部曲巨著《博物馆：一部世界史》（Le Musée, une histoire mondiale）的作者克日什托夫·波米安（Krzysztof Pomian）告诉我们，博物馆的诞生可以追溯到15世纪末的意大利。几百年间，王室的宝藏和奇珍室逐渐褪去神圣的光环，向普通公众开放，其中的藏品成为连接过去和未来的纽带。阿涅丝·巴尔东（Agnès Bardon）担任采访人们通常认为博物馆起源于18世纪的欧洲启蒙运动，其实博物馆的历史还要早得多，你认为最早的博物馆是什么时候出现的？
出于机缘巧合，最早的博物馆出现在15世纪末。当时，教皇西克斯图斯四世（Sixtus IV）捐出一批古董送给罗马市政厅，希望借此机会修复天主教会与这座城市之间被前任教皇破坏的关系。西克斯图斯四世并不知道什么是博物馆，不过这些古董在保守宫（Palazzo dei Conservatori）的展出开创了一个旷古未有的先例——属于公共实体的一批异教世俗收藏品被永久保存下来，并且向参观者开放。这是对罗马荣耀的永恒致意。意大利精英阶层对于古罗马的一切无不心驰神往，捐献一事引得他们纷纷效仿。半个世纪后，这家公共实体被命名为“博物馆”，意为古代供奉缪斯女神的神庙。博物馆之所以诞生在意大利，是因为这里的古罗马古迹遗址比其他任何地方都多。况且，意大利人认为今不如昔，曾经的辉煌已经黯淡，他们一心希望恢复往日的荣光，这种想法在意大利比其他任何地方都更普遍、也更强烈。可以想见，即便没有西克斯图斯四世的捐赠之举，也会有其他人这样做。博物馆概念在威尼斯、佛罗伦萨和米兰等地迅速传播，就是一个证明。由于宗教战争席卷了阿尔卑斯山以北的欧洲大陆，博物馆在17世纪末以前仅见于意大利一地。此后，博物馆逐渐进入了日耳曼国家、英国和法国。法国大革命后，西欧各国的首都和主要城市都创建了博物馆，中欧、俄罗斯、印度和美洲等地也建起了首批博物馆。19世纪下半叶，随着欧洲殖民者踏足各大洲，博物馆开始遍及世界各地。“博物馆之所以诞生在意大利，是因为这里的古罗马古迹遗址比其他任何地方都多”
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© 照片斯卡拉（SCALA），佛罗伦萨——由意大利文化遗产、活动和旅游部提供，巴黎大皇宫（GrandPalaisRmn）区 / 图片斯卡拉 《奇珍室》(Cabinet of Curiosities)，多梅尼科·雷普斯（Domenico Remps）创作（约 1690 年）。作为博物馆展览的前身，奇珍室陈列着各种稀有珍贵的藏品。
奇珍室和王室收藏由来已久，后来创建的博物馆与它们的区别在哪里？在旧制度下的欧洲建立博物馆，意味着向公众开放王室艺术收藏和奇珍室，尽管最初的范围极为有限。此后还需要调整作为展厅的建筑物的设计结构，变换展品的陈列方式，重新分类整理藏品，监测藏品状况，并规定开放时间和门票价格。这就意味着博物馆需要雇用能够胜任相关工作的人员。你曾经说过，博物馆是“不可或缺但无用”之地，博物馆有哪些社会作用？从12世纪开始，欧洲社会不再从历史中寻求典范、先例和规范，也不再相信未来的一切都是注定的、不可更改的。这是一个缓慢的过程，中间几经中断，还夹杂着冲突，在各个国家和各个时期的发展情况也不均衡。从专注过去到面向未来，将未来视为人类创造的成果，这个重心转移过程前后延续了数百年，期间经历了两次突进时期——文艺复兴时期和启蒙运动时期。博物馆的作用是收集过去的自然物品和人工制品，将它们传递给遥远的未来，从而成为未来信仰的殿堂。正是这种坚定信念赋予了博物馆存在的意义。博物馆诞生于文艺复兴时期，随着启蒙运动的到来，博物馆发展成为现代文明的核心要素。与此同时，欧洲社会摆脱了保守思想，开始将目光投向未来。博物馆既是这一变化的表征，也是变化的载体，博物馆将历史展示出来，让参观者意识到历史无处不在。正因为如此，人们现在可以看到史前博物馆、中世纪博物馆，甚至还有二战博物馆。此外，大多数博物馆按地域、专题或其他原则分类，按时间顺序布展。从19世纪中叶开始，博物馆的数量成倍增长，这种繁荣背后的原因是什么呢？19世纪中叶以来，博物馆数量快速增长，这是一系列社会变化共同促成的结果：从农业向工业过渡，乡村生活让位于城市生活，等级社会发展为阶级社会，昔日的文盲掌握了读写能力，图像和录音从难得一见发展到无处不在，世俗化进程持续推进，普通民众在有生之年可以感受到社会在飞速变化。所有这些都鼓励人们着力保存早已消失不见的古代世界的遗迹，留给子孙后世。18世纪以来，博物馆一直是文明的标志。在任何一座充满自豪感的城市里，博物馆总是占据着核心位置。博物馆成就了一座城市的声望，吸引着外来游客，博物馆自身的存在和它组织的各项活动，对于重塑本地居民之间的社会纽带功不可没。没有卢浮宫，就没有现在的巴黎；没有普拉多博物馆，就没有现在的马德里；失去了老绘画陈列馆，慕尼黑不成其为慕尼黑；失去了阿拉坦博物馆，阿尔勒也就不再是阿尔勒。“没有卢浮宫，就没有现在的巴黎；没有普拉多博物馆，就没有现在的马德里；失去了老绘画陈列馆，慕尼黑不成其为慕尼黑；失去了阿拉坦博物馆，阿尔勒也就不再是阿尔勒”
博物馆像时钟一样显示时间。但与时钟不同的是，博物馆里的时间悠长、有质感、划分为多个时期并且有着明确的地域范围。时间本身就是博物馆工作中不可或缺的一部分。博物馆的藏品来自过去，在将它们交给未来时，必须尽量保持原始状态，至少也要维持当初收入博物馆时的状态。因此，馆藏物品保存在可以防止或减缓物理、化学、生物腐蚀作用的环境中。修复馆藏品，是为了彻底清除腐蚀作用留下的痕迹。不过，藏品不时需要对外展出，这并不总是符合保存要求。博物馆馆长的工作之一，就是在尊重过去、满足当代要求、又不打破来自未来的约束之间，找到巧妙的折中方案。博物馆在21世纪初可以起到哪些社会作用？博物馆大获成功，就连博物馆尚未发展成熟的地区也不例外，该如何解释这种成功？两次世界大战和作为战后余波的殖民战争，终止了博物馆自19世纪中叶以来的发展趋势。随着和平的恢复，博物馆再次步入发展轨道。由于社会变革的步伐不断加快，而且这些变革正在颠覆社会关系和个人生活的方方面面，博物馆迎来了前所未有的强劲发展势头。因此，越来越多的人希望为子孙后代保留正在消失的时代的遗迹。要实现这个愿望，唯有创建新的博物馆或是扩建现有的博物馆。
国际博物馆协会（ICOM）是唯一一个致力于博物馆及博物馆专业人员发展的全球性组织。在联合国教科文组织的支持下，国际博物馆协会于1946年在法国巴黎成立，目前拥有57000名成员、120个国家委员会和34个国际委员会。自成立以来，国际博物馆协会在博物馆方面取得了里程碑式的重要成就，包括通过了道德准则、打击非法贩运，以及提高备灾能力。《国际博物馆》（Museum International）是国际博物馆协会出版的一份同行评议期刊，于21世纪初由联合国教科文组织转交国际博物馆协会出版，旨在促进博物馆和遗产领域的专业知识及信息交流。国际博物馆协会当前的目标是提高博物馆的透明度并加强博物馆之间的合作，以应对非殖民化和气候变化等当代挑战，同时倡导博物馆在促进可持续和平社区方面发挥的重要作用。
Krzysztof Pomian: “The museum acts as a temple of belief in the future”
Historian and author of a monumental trilogy entitled Le Musée, une histoire mondiale [The Museum, a global history], Krzysztof Pomian traces the birth of museums back to late 15th-century Italy. Over the centuries, princely treasures and cabinets of curiosities became secular places, open to the public and whose collections form a link between past and future generations.
Interview by Agnès Bardon
UNESCO
Museums are often thought to have originated with the European Enlightenment in the 18th century. But their origins go back much further. When do you think they started?
The first museums were created at the end of the 15th century – by chance. By donating a collection of antiquities to the Municipality of Rome, Pope Sixtus IV wanted to restore the Papacy's relations with the city, which had been sullied by his predecessor. The idea of a museum was foreign to him. But once displayed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, these antiquities formed an unprecedented collection of secular, pagan objects, belonging to a public entity, hence expected to last indefinitely and be open to visitors. It was a perpetual celebration of the glory of Rome. Among the Italian elite, fascinated by all things Roman, it stimulated a desire for imitation. Half a century later, this public entity was given the name of museum, which once denoted a temple devoted to the muses.Why was this institution created in Italy?The museum was born in Italy because the monuments of Classical Roman antiquity were present here like nowhere else. And, because feelings that the present was inferior to this glorious past – and the desire to revive it – were more widespread and intense there than anywhere else. We can also assume that if Sixtus IV had not made his gesture, it would have been made by somebody else. The rapid expansion of the museum concept in Venice, Florence and Milan bears witness to this.Until the end of the 17th century, the museum remained an Italian institution, as Europe north of the Alps was engulfed in religious wars. It then spread to the Germanic countries, Great Britain and France. After the French Revolution, we find it in all the capitals and major cities of Western Europe. It also established a number of bridgeheads in Central Europe, Russia, India and the Americas. Its global expansion began in the second half of the 19th century, when Europeans were colonizing every continent.“The museum was born in Italy because the monuments of Classical Roman antiquity were present here like nowhere else”How are museums different from the cabinets of curiosities or princely collections that existed before them?The creation of museums in the Europe of the Ancien Régime consisted of opening princely art collections and cabinets of curiosities to the public – albeit in a very limited way at first. Later on, this meant adapting the architecture of the buildings in which they were displayed and the way the objects were presented, reclassifying the collections, monitoring them, and regulating opening hours and the price of admission. And this meant that museums had to employ competent staff.You have described this institution as “useless but indispensable”. What role does it play in society?From the 12th century onwards, European societies stopped looking to the distant past as a source for their models, examples and norms. They also stopped seeing the future as pre-determined. This happened slowly, with interruptions and conflicts, and unevenly across countries and periods. But there were two moments of intensification in this centuries-old shift in the centre of gravity from the past towards a future seen as the work of humankind itself – the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. By bringing together collections of natural and artificial objects from the past to be passed on to a distant human future, the museum acts as a temple of belief in the future. It is this belief that gives the museum its meaning.It was born with the Renaissance and took its place at the centre of modern civilisation with the Enlightenment, when European societies ceased to be backward-looking and became future-oriented. As both a symptom of and a vehicle for this change, the museum puts history on display and raises awareness that it is ubiquitous. As a result you can visit a museum of prehistory, the Middle Ages or even the Second World War. What’s more, most museums are organised chronologically, within a geographical, thematic or other framework.From the mid-19th century onwards, we see the number of museums multiply. How would you explain this success?The rapid growth in the number of museums from the mid-19th century onwards was the result of the transition from agriculture to industry, from rural to urban life, from a society of orders to a society of classes, from illiteracy to writing, from a scarcity of images and sounds to their omnipresence, the progresses of secularisation and, more generally, the rapidity of the changes we perceive in the course of a lifetime, which encouraged the preservation of the remains of vanished worlds for the benefit of future generations.What links do they have with the history of the towns in which they are located?Since the 18th century, the museum has been a characteristic of civilization. It occupies a central place in any self-respecting city. It is one of its claims to fame, attracting visitors from outside and contributing, by its very existence and the events it organizes, to the regeneration of social bonds between its inhabitants. Paris would not be what it is without the Louvre, Madrid without the Prado, Munich without the Pinakothek and Arles without the Museon Arlaten.“Paris would not be what it is without the Louvre, Madrid without the Prado, Munich without the Pinakothek and Arles without the Museon Arlaten”What relationship do museums have with time?Like clocks, museums show time. But it’s a different kind of time from that of clocks – long, qualitative, divided into periods and attached to a defined portion of terrestrial space. Time is also an integral part of museum practice itself. Museum objects come from the past and must be passed on to the future in a state that is as close as possible to their original state, or at least to the state they were in when they entered the collections. This is why they are kept in an environment that prevents or slows down the corrosive action of physical, chemical and biological factors. And they are restored to remove any traces of these impacts. However, these objects need to be displayed here and now, which is not always compatible with the demands of conservation. The art of the curator consists in finding compromises between respect for the past, the demands of the present and the constraints imposed by the future.In this early 21st century, what roles do museums play in society? How do you explain their success, even in regions where they were not well established?The trends that had been underway since the mid-19th century were halted by the two World Wars and their aftermath, the colonial wars. The return of peace has set them in motion again, with an intensity that is all the greater given that the pace of change is accelerating and that these changes are now overturning every aspect of social relations and the lives of individuals. Hence the desire felt by a growing number of people to preserve for our descendants the vestiges of what is disappearing. And this can only be done by creating new museums or extending existing ones.The international museums network
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is the only global organization dedicated to developing museums and the museum profession. Founded in 1946 in Paris, France with UNESCO's support, today ICOM includes 57,000 members, 120 national committees and 34 international committees. Throughout its history, ICOM has achieved significant milestones for museums including adopting a code of ethics, combating illicit trafficking, and improving disaster preparedness. ICOM publishes "Museum International," a peer-reviewed journal transferred from UNESCO in the early 2000s, which promotes expertise and knowledge exchange in museums and heritage.
Currently ICOM aims to enhance transparency and collaboration among museums, addressing contemporary challenges like decolonization and climate change, while advocating for the crucial role of museums in fostering sustainable and peaceful communities.
Links:
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) website:
https://icom.museum/en/
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