AUSTRIAN MUSEUM TO MAKE CATALOG OF SIWALIMA MUSEUM COLLECTION

Ambon, Maluku, Sept 23 (ANTARA) - Fur Volker Kunde museum in Vienna, Austria, will make a catalog on the collection of Siwalima museum in Ambon, Maluku.

"Two experts of the Austrian museum came to see the collection of Siwalima museum here in July this year," the museum's spokesperson Yean Esther Saya said her on Thursday.

She said Siwalima museum has the collection of more than 5,000 items related among others to geology, history, biology, and archeology, but they have insufficient space to put all of them on show at the same time.

Because of limited space at the Siwalima museum, most of the collections were not put on show but instead, kept in storehouse.

Therefore, she said the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna would make the catalog of Siwalima museum's collection to make it known far and wide by international community.

"We don't have enough space to exhibit the entire collection at the same time. Therefore we have to keep most of them in the storehouse and then exhibit it alternately every five years," Yean said.

She said the Fur Volker Kunde museum would also coordinate with Austrian Embassy in Jakarta to help provide the funds for the catalog making.

"The two museums started a good cooperation in 2007 and since then we have exchanged staffers for comparative study every year," Yean said.

She explained that that the two experts from the museum in Vienna have made a conservation of textile collection at Siwalima museum.

The Museum of Ethnology in Vienna is one of the most significant ethnological museums in the world.

Its collections comprise more than 200,000 ethnographic objects, 25,000 historical photographs, 136,000 printed works, and over 300 kilometers of film on the history, culture, and quotidian life of predominantly non-European peoples.***4***
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