The basements of Art Museums are often the storage site of lost treasures and uncataloged acquisitions. However, in a Wall Street Journal article from March 19, 2007 by John W Miller, "Why Miners Look For Buried Treasure In Belgian Museum", the author discusses how African maps, papers and rocks in the basement of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Brussels are a treasure trove for big business corporate diggers such as BHP Billiton, De Beers of South Africa, and Areva, a French nuclear company.
Geologist Johan Lavreau's quiet days as a civil servant overseeing the collection are now only memories as big business pays an admission charge to view maps and rock samples. According to the article:
"Miners can thank Belgium's King Leopold II, who controlled the Congo until 1908, for the riches preserved in Tervuren. The brooding, autocratic king ordered surveyors -- and their slaves -- up and down the vast country. They mapped the land by hand. Their followers panned millions of soil samples and collected millions of rocks. In 1940, the Belgian colonial government in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) ordered private mining companies to turn over their records to help the Allies find resources that could help in the war effort against Germany."
This real world treasure chest brings to mind the many years of searching, expense, and violence associated with digging quests in Africa. It is a fitting story given Hollywood's own contribution recently with "Blood Diamond".
Link: Why Miners Look For Buried Treasure In Belgian Museum - WSJ.com.
Link: Warner Brother's movie "Blood Diamond"
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