Collection(s) de curiosités - the Requien Museum gets out of its walls

Animals and plants are collected to better understand the evolution of living things. To compare, everything has to be presented in a uniform way. Everything is exhibited, and very few objects are stored in reserves. The main aim is to ensure regularity of presentation and completeness of species.

Following the donation of his collections by Esprit Requien in 1840, the Natural History Museum, which has borne his name since 1851, continues this work of sampling all areas of natural history, for scientists and the public alike. The Institut Calvet and the City of Avignon own and maintain this rich scientific, technical and natural heritage. Rocks and minerals, shells, insects, crustaceans, mammals, reptiles and birds, flowering plants, lichens and mosses, measuring devices and all other fields are represented. In the collections, they can be found in many different forms: eggs or nests, horns or antlers, skeletons, herbarium plates, naturalized specimens, objects, traps, seeds... Of these estimated 1.2 million specimens, the majority belong to protected species and a few to extinct species.

Following on from the twentieth century, which saw the emergence of an awareness of the finite nature of biodiversity, from which we cannot draw without limit, the twenty-first century is that of a race against time in biology: scientists are realizing that we know far less about the planet's species than we thought we did. Much remains to be discovered, while species extinctions are accelerating under the direct or indirect influence of mankind.

The Requien Museum's exhibition at the Célestins church brings together this double discourse: to show a lot, to show diversity, to show this sample of the world that is stored in Avignon and usually not very visible. And also, to present thematic poles and reading lines, which allow us to glimpse that to show curiosity(s) about Nature is to enter a fabulous world, almost infinite and at everyone's fingertips, of which we never tire."

Joseph Jacquin-Porretaz
Curator of Scientific, Technical and Natural Heritage
Head of the Requien Museum

Free admission.

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