The transportation of the Parisian ethnographic collections from the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie to the Musée du quai Branly marks an important change in the history of French collections of ethnographic artifacts. The largest part of the credits for acquisition is now allocated to expensive objects on the art market, whereas money provided to researchers to buy objects in the field have become almost inexistant. What indeed will be the long term consequences of this policy ?