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(sound of worker sculpting)

JANE HUTCHEON: Despite the army of workers, in a few hours' time President
Jacques Chirac will walk through a museum which he conceived of 11 years
ago.

He's said to be a fan of tribal art, and hopes the Musee du Quai Branly, or
MQB for short, will leave its mark on the city well after he steps down in
May next year.

Architect Jean Nouvel won a competition to design the MQB, and he wanted
Indigenous Australian art in the fabric of the building. 

JEAN NOUVEL: I saw the unbelievable texture of this painting, and I imagine
perhaps it's possible that this great artist could agree to work in another
scale.

JANE HUTCHEON: Three of the eight artists involved in the Australian
commission are in Paris to witness how their work has been transplanted from
paintings into the ceilings, walls and pillars of the museum's
administrative building.

Though the art isn't located in the public exhibition space, it can be seen
from the entrance to the museum, through glass walls.

Those involved say it will transform the perception of Aboriginal art.

Jennifer Bott is the CEO of the Australia Council.

JENNIFER BOTT: It's a great platform, particularly for Indigenous art
internationally, but more than that it's a real focus on Australia and
Australia's artists for everybody who either lives or comes to Paris and is
around the new Musee du Quai Branly.

JANE HUTCHEON: The actual Australian collection in the museum is modest,
about 1,500 objects. But it also houses more than one quarter of a million
artefacts which came from several smaller museums in the capital. 

Swiss genetics professor Andre Langaney is a director at the Museum of Man,
which lost 80 per cent of its collection to the MQB. He questions the method
by which some of the artefacts were obtained.

ANDRE LANGANEY: They were illegally acquired by the French Government. They
were taken out of some African countries, long after this country put laws
which prohibit the exportation of some archaeological or ethnographical
pieces.

JANE HUTCHEON: The controversy won't stop after tonight's inauguration.
President Chirac won't be in office too much longer to defend his pet
project.

But Australia's million-dollar contribution is safely embedded in the
museum, a clear tribute to the Indigenous artists in a place far from home. 

In Paris, this is Jane Hutcheon for AM.