Roger Buergel's lecture analyses some relevant issues of what curating art means today. The following quote by an unknown French officer about the island of Mauritius serves as a metaphor: "I do not know a corner of the earth whose wants are supplied from so many, or so different parts. Their dishes and plates come from China; their linen and clothes from India; their slaves and cattle from Madagascar; their provisions, or part of them, from the Cape of Good-Hope; their money from Cadiz, and their government and laws from France" (approx. 1775).