Looted fossil art
Did the French steal Maastricht heritage? According to a motion, which was broadly supported by the Maastricht City Council last July, they did. The stolen object is an almost complete skull of a mosasaur. The 66-million-year-old fossil remnants were discovered in the Sint-Pietersberg at the end of the 18th century, after which the French carried them off to Paris as spoils of war. That is where “the Tutankhamun of palaeontology”, as palaeontologist John Jagt from the Natural History Museum of Maastricht calls the skull in De Limburger, has been one of the top items in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle since then. In Maastricht, we have to make do with a cast of the skull.
As far as the Maastricht City Council is concerned, this will change – now that the discussion about returning looted art is a hot topic. The motion requests that the municipality, possibly together with the government, opens discussions with France about the return. The eventual winner? Fokeline Dingemans, former managing director of the Natural History Museum of Maastricht, is on two minds about the discussion, she said to de Limburger. “The item is Dutch. There are no doubts about that. But the scientific context is French.”
Mice on the “Berg”
Anyone who abhors vermin is perhaps better off staying away from the Executive Board building on the Minderbroedersberg (MBB). An almost annually recurring phenomenon is the presence of two rather innocent, but tough to control insects: mites (dark ‘dots’ on desks and window sills) and the stink bug (unpleasant odour). This summer, another ‘plague’ joined them: mice. Multiple people came across the rodents in their drawer units, according to the employee intranet.
With this, MBB has become the problem child among the university buildings, says Peter Hamers, involved in pest control on behalf of Facility Services. “In many buildings, we have no trouble with vermin at all; in some, we may find the odd mouse in a kitchenette or canteen, for example. In places like that, we have humane traps with real-time detection. Normally, we never have an ‘explosion’ of mice.”
Right now, the focus is on pest control and prevention. The many holes and cracks in the centuries-old building will provide an extra challenge. “Filling everything would be quite a job, so you have to focus on ‘strategic’ places, in combination with traps.” Another urgent piece of advice to employees that appeared on intranet: don’t leave your lunch in your drawer unit or on your desk.
Our ‘very own’ Speedy Gonzales
All eyes were on Femke Bol during the last 400 metres of the relay race on 27 August, but the woman who sprinted away after the starting shot certainly put her best foot forward too. Eveline Saalberg, 25 years old, is a medical student at UM and was chairwoman of student athletics association Uros in 2018. Those days, she dreamed of participating in the European Championship for the under 23, she told Observant in an interview at the time.
Now she has become world champion with the Dutch women’s team in the 4x400 metres during the World Athletics Championship in Budapest. Of course, Uros didn’t just let this slip by. Former colleagues from Eveline’s own board year travelled to Hungary; they did not want to miss this. And the cherry on the cake was that they did not just witness her participate, but actually gain a glorious victory. “As an association, we are extremely proud of her. Becoming world champion is no small thing,” according to the board of MSAV Uros.