Béatrice Voirol

Abstract:

“Adventures in Paradise”

The collection of Lucas Staehelin and Theo Meier from the Marquesas Islands / French Polynesia at the Museum der Kulturen Basel (MKB, Museum of Cultures Basel)

As young men, Lucas Staehelin and Theo Meier from Basel went on a trip to the Marquesas Islands / French Polynesia. Being amateurs, they collected ethnographic material by buying items from locals, but also from excavating graves. As these excavations were unauthorized the two Swiss were later accused of grave desecration by the French administration. However, the case wasn’t followed up. Bringing together Lucas Staehelin’s diary records with his photographs and the objects that today are part of the MKB’s collection, we now start to put together a picture of the thinking of the early 1930s, of the ways of collecting and of museum politics past and present. The plan is to make data freely accessible to enable a discussion between Marquesans and the MKB.