This article reports the results ofa survey of the staff of the MAAO on the eve of its closing. Use of the method of testimonials has allowed the construction of an oral archive involving the different positions within the museum. But memory is not history; this plural testimonial is first and foremost the « ideological novel »of a specific group on the eve of a dissolution. The study nonetheless provides useful insight into the organization of the museum : its principal activities (contributions to the collection and exhibitions, caretaking, administration and communication, welcome and mediation). It also shows how différent professions are constructed, diversified, qualified, or disqualified, in addition to recounting hierarchical, professional, and affective relationships in the workplace and outside the workplace. Beyond this particular case (burden of colonial heritage, disagreement between directors, the tension between art and anthropology) the study demonstrates the movement towards professionalization and the recomposition of public service, which over the lastfifty years have been the main impetus for change for museums.