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‪The article, based on interviews between Anne Lavondès and Véronique Mu-Liepmann led in 2020 and 2021, will first look back at pioneering works prior to Anne Lavondès: W.M.T. Brigham (late 19th), Karl von den Steinen (late 19th, early 20th), Margaret Titcomb (1937), and finally Marie-Charlotte Laroche. In a second part, the article will focus on the contribution of Anne Lavondès herself. Her pioneering work on Oceanian and Polynesian collections in France helped raise the awareness of curators and collection managers of patrimonial ensembles they kept, therefore enabling Polynesians to learn about ancient elements of their early material culture scattered in Museums in France. The article will end by featuring contributions of various speakers from the 1990s including Roger Boulay. It will evoke the action of French Polynesia since the 2010s, which through the intermediary of the Museum of Tahiti and islands and following the example of the New Caledonia has initiated a vast inventory of Polynesian collections held in Museums located in Metropolitan France to build an indispensable database.‪