Frédéric Mitterrand, Minister of Culture and Communication, has decided to launch a new underwater archaeological research vessel, called André Malraux.
This building will replace theArcheontologist, built in 1967 and assigned since then to the Department of Underwater and Underwater Archaeological Research (Drassm) created by André Malraux within his ministry.
The Minister thus endows the Drassm with a modern unit of intervention, made necessary by the increasing demands of the protection of the underwater heritage. Indeed, France is about to ratify the Unesco Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and to extend the area of protection of submerged archaeological sites to the limits of the exclusive economic zone. (200 nautical miles around the coast).
At the opening in Arles of a major exhibition on the archaeological excavations carried out for twenty years in the Rhone by the Drassm, the Minister thus shows his interest and concrete support for a discipline where France was a pioneer, and where it now occupies a leading position in international cooperation, both in terms of research and protection, as well as expertise and training.