Paris, 29 August 2011
The Musée Guimet — the national museum of Asian Arts — has a new president. Olivier de Bernon has been appointed by a decree from the French President. He will replace Jacques Giès, whose mandate ended on 28 August 2011.
Olivier de Bernon obtained his PhD in philosophy in 1984. However, he only finished his education in 1985, after having defended his thesis at the National Institute of Eastern Language and Civilisation. He subsequently decided to spend a year in Khmer and Laotian refugee camps in Thailand. In 1991, he became a member of the EFEO (French School of Far East Studies) and was in charge of the reinstatement of the institution in Cambodia and the FEMC (funds for the edition of Cambodian manuscripts). He was also responsible for listing a great number of manuscripts from the libraries of Cambodian monasteries, deciding whether or not they should be restored and preserved.
He wrote many articles and books about Cambodia. In 1999 he became professor at the department of Khmer studies at the faculty of archaeology of Silapakorn University in Bangkok. In 2004, he was behind the donation of the archives of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Calbodia, to the École française d’Extrême-Orient. The donation was then given to the National Archives.
There are currently two exhibitions on show at the Musée Guimet: “Rina Banerjee: Chimeras of India and The West” until 26 September, and “Ofuda, engraved imagery from Japanese Buddhist temples – The Bernard Franck Collection” until 12 September.