Two specialists from the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Ilie Mitrea and Ioan Brai, have restored over 70 main pieces from the Behague Palace in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, which hosts the Romanian Embassy, the Romanian ambassador to France, Ioana Bivolaru, stated on the occasion of the European Heritage Days, celebrated on September 21-22, informs a press release of the Sibiu museum, informs Agerpres.
” ‘Les Parisiens’ – this is how one of the dozens of messages written in the Golden Book by our visitors during the Heritage Day/Journees europeennes du patrimoine is signed. Thousands of people visited the Behague Palace/Romanian Embassy in France, many strangers who, in an instant, became our friends! Among those who heard about us and waited in a long line in the street to see ‘what’s behind these splendid carved wooden gates that I pass by every day on my bike’ or who thought that ‘you must have done something very nice here, because I’ve seen scaffolding on the building for months in a row’ or who were delighted that ‘I finally saw this wonder of the palace I read about in Le Monde!’ We had a real feast of spirit when we had ‘open doors’ on a bright autumn day, when the Behague Palace and garden simply shone, “taken by storm” by people avid for culture, lovers of history, connoisseurs of art, generous in their confessions and grateful for the “high-ranking” joy of visiting the Palace,” said Ambassador Ioana Bivolaru.
She also thanked the team of the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, with the help of which the European Heritage Days were celebrated in Paris.
The manager of the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Alexandru Chituta, emphasised that the Sibiu museum “has a restoration laboratory where very good expert restorers work, with numerous restored pieces in their CV, some of them of an exceptional value”.
“This year, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Romanian Embassy in France, we started a programme to restore the pieces of art and furniture from the Behague Palace in Paris. It is Romania’s headquarters in the centre of France. This year, this palace hosted the House of Romania at The Olympic Games in Paris. It is a joy but also an honor to restore Romania’s heritage in Paris,” said Alexandru Chituta.