"Marc Jeanson is young for his role as director of the world's largest and oldest herbarium, the Jardin des Plantes at France's Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, and he doesn't look as you imagine a botanist should.

"Marc Jeanson is young for his role as director of the world's largest and oldest herbarium, the Jardin des Plantes at France's Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, and he doesn't look as you imagine a botanist should.

When Le Monde profiled him a few years back – his job packs that sort of cultural cachet in France – the reporter suggested he might be mistaken for a figure of fashion or advertising. In his mid-30s, he has a pianist's fingers, an elegant presence and a quiet but passionate manner of speaking.

So it was out of character when, on the morning of April 7 last year, Jeanson arrived at work, checked his email and howled and swore with such violence that a librarian working nearby rushed into his office see if he was okay. He was not.

Jeanson had received a message from the director of the Queensland Herbarium in Australia that was abrupt to the point of being blunt. It told him that a package of 105 botanical specimens of Australian plants owned by the Jardin des Plantes – and gathered by an intrepid French botanist more than 200 years earlier – had been destroyed by Australian biosecurity officials.

To this day, Jeanson can't quite believe what happened, and nor can scientists and museum directors from around the world who have followed the story with horror.

The specimens were both priceless and irreplaceable. How could anyone, let alone government officials, incinerate such artefacts? It was simply beyond Jeanson's comprehension. It remains so, even after post-mortems and investigations conducted in both countries, by scientists and bureaucrats, after diplomats stepped in and compensation negotiations were undertaken.

With Australian officials refusing to speak about the incident beyond bland bureaucratic statements of regret, it's hard to unpick the chain of events that led to the destruction. When you do go looking for answers you find other stories, too: tales of the collection of the specimens, of shipwreck, war and endurance, of a time when exploration and scientific endeavour were as significant to world powers as conquest and trade."
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/would-you-burn-the-mona-lisa-if-it-was-sent-our-horror-bureaucratic-bungle-20180213-h0w0w3.html