Africa-Press – Angola. Mbanza Kongo, The French ambassador to Angola, Sophie Aubert, on Monday assured the Angolan government that France will help it to recover some museum pieces removed from the Regional Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo.
Speaking at the end of a 24-hour visit to Mbanza Kongo, the French diplomat told the press that she had contacted the local museum management to draw up a list of missing pieces, which would facilitate their location and return.
The French ambassador’s visit to the former capital of the Kingdom of Kongo was in response to a request from President João Lourenço during his January visit to France. Lourenço asked for joint efforts to preserve, conserve, and enhance the historic center of Mbanza Kongo, which was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2017.
“We are here to see how we can mobilize the tools we already have in archaeology, a field in which we have cooperated for many years, to restore the collection of the Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo,” the diplomat said.
During a brief meeting with the management of the Regional Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo, the ambassador noted that the possibility of digitizing the entire historical and cultural heritage of the museum was also discussed for better conservation and dissemination.
Currently, the Regional Museum of the Kingdom of Kongo has only 96 collections portraying the collective memory of the ancient Kingdom of Kongo’s sovereigns, a fraction of the more than 4,000 pieces it had before the Angolan Civil War.
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