On December 12, 2024, the Heritage Commission hosted an event and a roundtable discussion “Walking the Paths of Diaspora Artists: Significant Lithuanian Cultural Heritage in France” at the National Library of Lithuania. During the event, diplomats, artists and other prominent figures, such as Arbit Blatas, Michel Kikoïne, Marc Chagall and others, whose creative and public activities continued after leaving Lithuania were introduced, stories about cultural heritage objects and places of memory in France were shared.
Paris hides numerous signs of Lithuanian statehood—from the coat of arms of Vytis on the buildings of the French capital to the old Lithuanian diplomatic mission. Now these and other interesting objects could be found on a map created by the Heritage Commission together with the Lithuanian Community in France, and presented for the first time at the event.
In 2023, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania formed an inter-institutional working group to address the issues of Lithuanian cultural heritage abroad. The Heritage Commission has been initiating projects aimed at collecting data in cooperation with Lithuanian communities abroad, supplementing the Upaveldas.lt database and disseminating information about this still little known heritage. Last year, a project was implemented on Lithuanian cultural heritage in France.