Stratofreighter
10th Jun 2007, 12:00
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SUMMARY FURTHER DOWN BELOW: Don't forget to look at the bottom of
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/BAM2007/index.html .
And please sign or at least voice your concerns! You don't have to be Belgian to do this and it is free...
Below is a "less official version" of what can be found at the weblink...
The Belgian Army Museum/Belgisch Legermuseum is about to renovate the Aviation Hall over the next few years. No big deal you'd say. Well, no....
The rather fragile World War One aircraft collection (with some UNIQUE "last original one left"-examples) had better not be moved too much! The same applies to several less older planes...
And that is exactly what the Museum Management is planning to do: move the WHOLE collection to some rather ill-suited windy, tatty and moisty hangars with leaky roofs and practically non-existing security.
Some nicely-preserved aircraft were moved from Brussels to the storage facilities over the years and in the recent past and now they will have to be restored AGAIN!
And the move isn't even necessary: the aircraft can remain in place while the Hall is being renovated. According to building experts...
You'd say that the Museum Management should know this. Well, the care, maintenance, restoration, research and know-how of the aviation collection (and the finances to fund this all...) is now entirely in the hands of volunteers from a handful of organisations.
Volunteers who are entirely ignored by the Museum Management, not even briefing them on short notice on what they are planning to do with the aircraft they maintain, let alone telling anything about long-term plans...
Secretly some aircraft have already been moved from the museum over the last few months. This while the renovation has not even been budgeted! Or the global renovation plan outlined...
Knowing some Belgian governmental bodies it will probably take YEARS before the renovation is finally completed. And the collection will have to be moved in again.
A collection that has seriously degraded over the years in totally inadequate buildings. This collection will have to be restored.
PROBLEM: there are no paid full-time restoration people with aviation knowledge working at the Brussels Museum. And if there were any they wouldn't know where to start!
Restorations also cost a LOT of money. Museums generally don't have much money available. Over the years experience has even shown that the Belgian Army Museum is hugely UNDERFUNDED. This is not likely to change in future.
RESULT: all the public will be able to see is a wrecked collection. Perhaps some artefacts will in the end only be good for scrap...
SUMMARY: What will happen if no-one complains? A lot of rather fragile aircraft and artefacts will be moved entirely unnecessary to storage facilities that are not worth the name "facility".
The Brussels Museum will not have a single aircraft available to the general public for years! Or at most a very small collection.
When the renovation has finally come to an end a severely degraded collection will be moved back in.
This collection will have to be restored again. As ALL work to do this will have to be done voluntarily and NO museum-funds will probably become available to the few volunteers there is a real danger that the restorations will never happen, leaving a rather wrecked collection in a nice and shiny building...
SUMMARY FURTHER DOWN BELOW: Don't forget to look at the bottom of
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/BAM2007/index.html .
And please sign or at least voice your concerns! You don't have to be Belgian to do this and it is free...
Below is a "less official version" of what can be found at the weblink...
The Belgian Army Museum/Belgisch Legermuseum is about to renovate the Aviation Hall over the next few years. No big deal you'd say. Well, no....
The rather fragile World War One aircraft collection (with some UNIQUE "last original one left"-examples) had better not be moved too much! The same applies to several less older planes...
And that is exactly what the Museum Management is planning to do: move the WHOLE collection to some rather ill-suited windy, tatty and moisty hangars with leaky roofs and practically non-existing security.
Some nicely-preserved aircraft were moved from Brussels to the storage facilities over the years and in the recent past and now they will have to be restored AGAIN!
And the move isn't even necessary: the aircraft can remain in place while the Hall is being renovated. According to building experts...
You'd say that the Museum Management should know this. Well, the care, maintenance, restoration, research and know-how of the aviation collection (and the finances to fund this all...) is now entirely in the hands of volunteers from a handful of organisations.
Volunteers who are entirely ignored by the Museum Management, not even briefing them on short notice on what they are planning to do with the aircraft they maintain, let alone telling anything about long-term plans...
Secretly some aircraft have already been moved from the museum over the last few months. This while the renovation has not even been budgeted! Or the global renovation plan outlined...
Knowing some Belgian governmental bodies it will probably take YEARS before the renovation is finally completed. And the collection will have to be moved in again.
A collection that has seriously degraded over the years in totally inadequate buildings. This collection will have to be restored.
PROBLEM: there are no paid full-time restoration people with aviation knowledge working at the Brussels Museum. And if there were any they wouldn't know where to start!
Restorations also cost a LOT of money. Museums generally don't have much money available. Over the years experience has even shown that the Belgian Army Museum is hugely UNDERFUNDED. This is not likely to change in future.
RESULT: all the public will be able to see is a wrecked collection. Perhaps some artefacts will in the end only be good for scrap...
SUMMARY: What will happen if no-one complains? A lot of rather fragile aircraft and artefacts will be moved entirely unnecessary to storage facilities that are not worth the name "facility".
The Brussels Museum will not have a single aircraft available to the general public for years! Or at most a very small collection.
When the renovation has finally come to an end a severely degraded collection will be moved back in.
This collection will have to be restored again. As ALL work to do this will have to be done voluntarily and NO museum-funds will probably become available to the few volunteers there is a real danger that the restorations will never happen, leaving a rather wrecked collection in a nice and shiny building...