Paper short abstract:

Drawing on three 21st century national tragedies, this paper investigates how Dutch museums seek to create the future memory of our time by preserving objects pertaining to extraordinarily emotional events. Hereto, the paper looks into the role of existing collections representing national tragedies of the past.

Paper long abstract:

This paper investigates one specific way in which people seek to create the future memory of our time: by preserving objects pertaining to extraordinarily emotional events. In the Netherlands (2010) a fierce debate evolved surrounding the preservation of the corpora delicti involved in three national tragedies: the pistol that killed politician Pim Fortuyn (May 2002); the knife that the assassin left in the chest of filmmaker Theo van Gogh (November 2004); the car aimed at the Queen and the royal family during the 2009 Queens Day celebrations, but killing seven members of the audience instead. Although differing in political background, social context and outcome, the assassinations evoked a similar, widespread public outcry and sense of crisis among the Dutch populace.

The upheaval started when the bereaved of the 'Queens Day Tragedy' learned about the interest of the CODA museum in the wrecked car for possible future exhibition. Similar plans and emotions surrounded the preservation and possible future exhibition of the pistol that killed Pim Fortuyn in the Rijksmuseum in its function of 'Museum of Dutch National History'. Consequently, also questions were raised about a possible exhibition of the knife.

A central argument in the controversy comes from the Rijksmuseum, which considers the pistol comparable to the 'relics from Dutch national history' (vaderlandse relieken), whose preservation and exhibition are among the museum's core tasks. Taking this argument as point of departure, I will discuss the said relics as sensational forms (cf. Meyer 2006) that inform the creation of contemporary secular relics.