a powerful order reigned among them [the objects], a true order, one that
reXected the sequence of ages. The perpetuity of the nation was revealed by
them’ (quoted in Haskell 1993: 279). The impact of the museum was also
considerable as a teaching tool for history, as a comment by a frequent visitor
in his childhood explained:
As children we had become intimately acquainted with all those marble personages:
kings, warriors, prelates, writers, poets, artists. We could hardly read, but already we
were familiar not only with their features but also with their histories... [Going to the
Petits Augustins] was a good preparation for reading Augustin Thierry, Barante and
all that cluster of historians who soon afterwards were to throw light on those parts of
our national history that were still covered in darkness
(in Haskell 1993: 250).The museum was also thought of as a gallery of great men. As Peyre, the
architect in charge of building work in the museum (McClelland 1994: 178),
said in 1797, the museum contained ‘the images and the monuments raised to
the glory of great men’ (in McClelland 1994: 263), a perspective conWrmed
by Lenoir himself when, in relation to the seventeenth-century room, he
proposed ‘to include busts of the great men of France... who are, I believe,
essential to historical narrative’ (in McClelland 1994: 179).
Despite its relative success, the Museum of French Monuments enjoyed a
short life. As explained, in 1795 the government decided that all sculpture had
to be transferred to the Louvre. After this, the museum was further aVected
by the oYcial reinstatement of religion after the 1802 Concordat. Demands by
the Church and by the nobility for their monuments to be returned also had a
great impact on the museum (McClelland 1994: 194, 196). Eventually, Napo-
leon’s downfall led to its sudden closure in 1816 and to theWnal dispersal of
its collections—some of which went to the Louvre (Haskell 1993: 348–9;
McClelland 1994: 197). In spite of its apparent ultimate failure, the ethos of
the Museum of French Monuments survived much longer. The spirit of the
museum endured in the conviction of the need to exhibit and protect
monuments and other works of art belonging to the national past. Already,
during its life, this museum had inspired the creation of others, such as the
Museum of Nordic Antiquities in Denmark (see below), which would become
crucial for the development of archaeology. It also inspired the National
Museum in Budapest, founded in 1802 with a donation of his private
collection made by Count Ferenc Sze ́che ́nyi explicitly to arouse nationalist
feelings among the Hungarians (Nagy 2003: 31–2); the Bruckenthalsche
National Museum fu ̈r Siberbu ̈gen in 1803; the Joanneum in Graz in 1811;
the Landesmuseum fu ̈rBo ̈hmen un Ma ̈hren in Bru ̈nn in 1817; and the
Vaterla ̈ndisches Museum in Prague in 1818 (Bjurstro ̈m 1996: 42).
322 National Archaeology in Europe