La Société des Nations et le patrimoine culturel. Une histoire intellectuelle européenne dans la « longue durée »

My research project aims to study the idea of ​​« heritage » as it was developed and defined within the League of Nations and its cultural organizations, particularly the Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle (IICI, 1925). The IICI was one of the main protagonists of intellectual cooperation in Europe, weaving a network of relations between scientists across the continent and with the other member states of the LoN. Within the IICI, in 1926, the Office International des Musées (OIM) was created; this organism in particular, sparking an intense dialogue between academics and curators, sought to harmonize the different experiences and skills that each country had individually developed in the field of conservation and museology. The debate on heritage and museums thus shifted from a national level to an institutional and international one, which marked a decisive turning point in the history of heritage in Europe. By studying the archives of the IICI (Maison de l'Unesco), as well as the major protagonists of this organism, my research will try to read the conservation and museum policies proposed by the OIM, at the light of a broader history of intellectual relations, ideas and political ideologies. Thanks to a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, it will seek to retrace the birth of the precise notion of heritage within the cultural organizations of the LoN and their afterlife in the post-war policies (Unesco).