On November 14, 2023, as an extension of the national operation of simplified abandonment of weapons to the State, the Central Weapons and Explosives Service (SCAE) organized, in conjunction with the Army Museum, a presentation of the weapons which, due to their technical, historical or heritage characteristics, could enrich museum collections.
The national weapons abandonment operation , remember, in 2022 allowed state services to collect more than 150,000 firearms. Originally, all weapons were to be destroyed. But thanks to the efforts of the UFA, the Tribune de l'Art and the goodwill of the SCAE, a solution was found to safeguard the weapons of high historical value.
In an effort to conserve French historical heritage, and more broadly the armory heritage, experts from the SCAE and the Army Museum went, at the end of the operation, to the places where abandoned weapons were centralized in order to to identify those which could be preserved, given their rarity or their importance in national or local history.
A selection of these weapons was presented on November 14. A thousand weapons all the same, or two thirds of the weapons preserved. The aim was to invite interested museums to make themselves known. Secondly, an allocation commission will examine all requests for conservation of these weapons and decide on their allocation in the collections of national, regional or local museums.
The exhibition of these weapons took place on the sidelines of the Milipol exhibition at the Paris-Nord Villepinte exhibition center.
We arrived on site among the first as part of the press point and after an obligatory passage through the checkpoint, we were able to access the room dedicated to this anticipated event. Expected for many months, since this presentation first scheduled for March 2023 has been postponed several times in view of current events.
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Given the volume of weapons collected, the experts had a choice and they only kept pieces in good condition.
The vast majority of objects on display were firearms, but there were also a few rare air guns, rocket launchers and a dozen bladed weapons.
The firearms were mainly portable weapons, pistols, revolvers, civilian and military rifles and submachine guns. But there were also some collective weapons: machine guns or machine guns, in particular a Hotchkiss machine gun, two Chauchats, a Bren in original box with all its accessories and a German MG42 from the Second World War.
The weapons were presented by era and country of origin with, it must be said, a strong predominance of the 20th century and foreign origins displayed. Nothing surprising if we consider that the two world wars involved an enormous amount of material and that between the remains of the airdrops and the recovery of weapons abandoned by the occupier in 1944, the French attics were overflowing with weapons. late 1940s.
A snapshot of the granaries of France
This ephemeral exhibition, intended to be shared between museums throughout the national territory, is a sort of snapshot of everything that could be found yesterday still buried deep in the attics and cellars of our compatriots. A catalog of this Prévert inventory has been published by the SCAE for museums wishing to benefit from some of these weapons.
It brings together very disparate weapons ranging from the old regime flintlock pistol to the MAC 50, including a set of weapons from all the countries that participated in the two world conflicts: France, Great Britain, Japan, United States, Germany, etc. .
These weapons will soon be heading to museums. Around forty delegations were on site, out of the sixty museums which expressed their interest in taking possession of some of these weapons.
A windfall for museums large and small
Some conservatives had traveled several hundred kilometers to position themselves on lots that the State will distribute free of charge depending on the decisions that will soon be taken by the allocation commission. It is likely that several establishments will want the same weapons; it is the commission which will decide according to the themes and the importance of the collections of the requesting museums.
The Army Museum, for its part, has already pre-empted the most evocative historical pieces of France's military past which were missing from its collections. But given the considerable number of weapons to be redistributed, 1,516 in total, we can imagine that everyone will find what they need. It should be noted that many museums have authorizations to hold category A and B weapons , so it will not necessarily be necessary to neutralize these weapons before putting them on display. The UFA is proud to have contributed to the rescue of numerous weapons.
Already, during the national weapons abandonment plan, by correctly informing holders about weapons regulations: in particular on the fact that certain weapons were neither to be declared nor abandoned, because they were free to possess (category D, or specific cases).
But also by informing about the fact that it was possible to declare the weapons rather than abandon them. It is clear that this communication operation by the UFA was useful, because our site recorded a record number of visits during this period.
After the national collection, our numerous requests, in particular by mail to the President of the Senate and the Minister of Culture , but also to various parliamentarians, as well as our exchanges with the SCAE, bore fruit since weapons were abandoned and intended for destruction were finally saved to join museum collections.
These actions to preserve weapons of high historical or heritage value are in full compliance with the statutes of the association, thus demonstrating our continued commitment to the missions and fundamental values of the UFA.
