Paris Museum of Man evolves to live again after six-year closure

The future had looked bleak after Jacques Chirac took half of the museum's collection for his own grand legacy project

For years they've lain in dim corridors gathering dust, only rarely making forays into the wider world. They are some of the world's most fascinating discoveries, which help tell the story of human evolution. Now treasures ranging from the remains of Cro-Magnon man to the celebrated 23,000-year-old Venus of Lespugue - as well as Reni(C) Descartes's skull - are once again to go on show with the rebirth of one of the world's greatest museums of prehistory.

More than a decade ago Paris's Musi(C)e de l'Homme was facing extinction. Former president Jacques Chirac had purloined half of its collection for his grand legacy project, the Quai Branly museum of arts and civilisations, leaving the mankind museum without a raison d'itre.