Shoddy conservation of magnificent petroglyph boulder at the Vancouver Museum. Screenshot from VM website.
For some reason mistreatment of rock art just makes me spitting mad. I posted the other day about a magnificent petroglyph boulder that was removed from its home on the central Fraser River near Lillooet in 1926. Bad enough that this work of art was ripped from its setting to be a curio in an urban park. Petroglyphs are not ornaments for your outdoor rock garden any more than they are lifestyle amenities deployed as advertising copy, even if you are a museum.
Now my spies tell me that this petroglyph boulder was moved to the Vancouver Museum in 1992. Pictures of the boulder on the VM website show it to be in absolutely appalling shape. It is covered with moss, the designs are visibly eroded and faint, there are signs of exfoliation, and the large crack seen in 1926 seems to be getting larger. The Vancouver Museum appears to be keeping this treasure in a damp, shady, spot in the outdoors (as they say, it is in a “lower level garden courtyard”) and there is no sign of any attention to basic, fundamental conservation responsibilities. They even have the gall to note in their website description “Today archaeologists are reluctant to reveal the locations of petrogylphs, lest they be disturbed.” Well I am revealing the location of this petroglyph, which is being disturbed by careless curation!
Seriously: this boulder is one of only a few petroglyphs from that part of the province, where pictographs are much more common. It was in pristine condition in 1926. Now it is a moss-ridden crumbling mess. This boulder is a cultural masterpiece. It is a provincial treasure. It is a national treasure. It is of international significance. And yet it is being absolutely neglected by a leading cultural institution. Imagine an Emily Carr painting being treated so poorly. Imagine a Bill Reid sculpture treated so shabbily. It would never happen. Yet this boulder is as important, is MORE important, and is consigned to rot away metres from state of the art curatorial facilities which are being devoted to white leather pant suits (!!). It is astonishing to me that they put this boulder on the web at all, suggesting that they don’t see a problem and are therefore unworthy to be in possession of it. They should make arrangements immediately to have it transferred to a suitable institution or have it returned to its original setting, in what I take to be St’at’imc territory
Vancouver Museum, you have a responsibility of professional stewardship. Are you living up to it?
Note the eroded engravings and extensive moss/algae cover. Source: VM website screenshot.
The boulder in the early 1930s, soon after it was brought to Stanley Park. Note the crispness of the designs and the lack of moss.
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