ARCHIVES FOR UFO RESEARCH

AFU

Limbo situation on French collection (updated February 13, 2005)

At the end of 2004 a formal bid was made for the SOS-OVNI-Perry Petrakis collection by a French-Swedish-American consortium but the offer so far remains unanswered by the second party.

Note: French text at bottom of page!

The French UFO organization SOS-OVNI's files and archives are at risk of being sold in pieces by an enforcement officer. Long time ufologist Perry Petrakis is in economical troubles. Mr. Petrakis published the Phénomena magazine but is now in debt to the printers. 

In collaboration with the French organization SCEAU (Sauvegarde, Conservation des Études et Archives Ufologiques), AFU proposes to buy this major French UFO collection. You can support the deal by sending your contribution to UFO-Sweden's collection or by supporting any of the European national collections listed below. 

National collections are organized in several European countries (UK, Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland), whereby you send your contribution to a national address. It is then transmitted to become part of a final deal (thus avoiding unwanted bank charges). According to Mr. Petrakis he is in need of least 15.000 Euros to resolve his debts. 

Interested donors in France and Belgium please contact Jacques Scornaux for details. You can also contact, Bruno Mancusi, SCEAU representative for Switzerland and AFU sponsor, who is organizing a collection of money in Switzerland and the European continent. Details, in French, about addresses and account numbers is found at the bottom of this page!

The Swedish collection is organized by Clas Svahn, whose Swedish postal giro account is 832 70 35-5. You can also use any of UFO-Sweden's Scandinavian giro accounts: 7874.07.04566 (Norway), 800016-70840520 (Finland) or 478-2313 (Denmark) or AFU's Swedish postal giro 49 07 14-3.  International donors might want to use PayPal - details below. Please make a note that your donation concerns the French UFO collection. 

Archives for UFO Research (AFU) have been asked to help Mr. Petrakis, who wants parts of the files to be transferred to Sweden for cataloguing and preservation. The archives consist of several tons of material. Almost 400 books (in many languages),  magazines from all over the world, audios, videos, pictures, case files and more. 

There are about two hundred book titles which are not previously in the AFU reference library; a large number of magazines; and a collection of pictures, slides etc. The AFU-SCEAU joint proposal assures that organizational and report archives (in French) will remain in France and be organized by SCEAU within the French National Archives system. 

We are now negotiating about the price. So far (April 8, 2003) AFU and UFO-Sweden have raised  3.550 Euros  from ufologists in Scandinavia, Britain, Japan and the US, but we need your help to raise more money to be able to save the archive. A list of all contributions is updated almost every day. 

AFU is today one of the world's largest UFO archives. We are devoted to collect, preserve, catalogue and make available UFO material from many different countries to researchers all over the world. The French collection (mainly the books, magazines and picture material) would be a great addition to our collection which has a cultural slant towards the Anglo-American and Scandinavian world. All contributions are welcome.

Please send your contribution through PayPal. If you are not already registered with PayPal this is easy and safe. Instructions are found on the page we link to, but you must have a credit card to be able to use PayPal. If you want to send money or checks please address them to: AFU, P.O. Box 11027, S-600 11 Norrkoping, Sweden. 

Thank you for your support.

Clas Svahn  &  Anders Liljegren
Archives for UFO Research

As published on the EuroUFO List on January 27:

Hello European ufo-friends,
I urgently ask all serious researchers in Europe to support the initiative of Clas Svahn and Anders Liljegren, AFU in Sweden and the French organization SCEAU (Sauvegarde, Conservation des Etudes et Archives Ufologiques) to preserve this important collection for our future research. 

Best regards,

Ole Henningsen
SUFOI, Scandinavian UFO Information
Denmark

Received from Ole Jonny Braenne, chairman of UFO-Norway on January 27, 2003:

(translated from Norwegian) "The board of UFO-Norway has decided that UFO-Norway shall support Project Hessdalen as well as AFU with the sum of 5.000 each. In other words, within a few days 5.000 will arrive both with Project Hessdalen and with AFU...."

Best regards, 

Ole Jonny Braenne

As published on the EuroUFO List on January 24:

... The council of directors of Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU) will evaluate whether to contribute as a body (some of us will do so on a personal basis), but as a first step we're
spreading an appeal for any would-be Italian contributor to send money in, and we'll pass it on to AFU. Let's hope to save it, somehow.

Best wishes

Edoardo Russo

In mail from Jacques Scornaux, February 15, 2003:

"...I take every opportunity for informing other people about the deal, and the Swiss ufologist Bruno Mancusi, SCEAU representative in Switzerland, has just proposed me to launch a call on three French-language UFO lists."

Mail circulated on French language mailing lists by Bruno Mancusi, March 2, 2003:  

Chers amis,

Suite à de graves problèmes financiers, Perry Petrakis est contraint de vendre la quasi-totalité des archives de SOS OVNI et de ses archives ufologiques personnelles, c'est-à-dire :

- des centaines de livres et de revues,
- des milliers de coupures de presse,
- des dizaines de photos, environ 500 diapositives,
- environ 80 cassettes vidéo, plusieurs CD-ROM,
- des rapports d'enquête (uniquement celles de P. Petrakis),
- des dizaines de dossiers d'information,
- les archives de l'ufologue décédé Joaquim Fernandes.

Les Archives for UFO Research (AFU) en Suède (qui conduisent l'opération), le SCEAU/Archives OVNI en France, le Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU) en Italie et la Fundación Anomalía en Espagne unissent leurs efforts pour récolter l'argent nécessaire à l'achat de la collection, de façon à assurer sa sauvegarde et à éviter sa dispersion. Une collecte est organisée dans plusieurs pays francophones. Vous pouvez ainsi envoyer vos dons (de préférence avant le 31 mars) à :

BELGIQUE

Virement au compte bancaire n° 001-1144149-13 de Jacques Scornaux.
Communication : "don sauvegarde archives".

FRANCE

Chèque à l'ordre du SCEAU/Archives OVNI, B.P. 19, 91801 BRUNOY CEDEX (don à association partiellement déductible des impôts)
 
SUISSE

CCP 10-99963-4 à l'ordre de Bruno Mancusi, route d'Echallens 10, 1530 Payerne (motif versement : "don sauvegarde archives").

AUTRES PAYS

Mandat postal international en euros adressé au SCEAU/Archives OVNI, B.P. 19, FR-91801 BRUNOY CEDEX.

Que se passera-t-il après ? Si la somme récoltée est suffisante et que l'achat s'effectue comme prévu, les documents seront triés par les AFU et le SCEAU et répartis entre eux (par exemple, les rapports d'enquête resteront bien sûr en France). En cas de non-conclusion de l'achat du fonds SOS OVNI/Perry Petrakis, les AFU utiliseront (sauf avis contraire expressément formulé de votre part) les sommes rassemblées pour d'autres actions de sauvegarde d'archives ufologiques.

Une fois répartis dans des bibliothèques et centres publics d'archives, ces documents seront accessibles à tous les chercheurs.

Tous les donateurs seront publiquement remerciés par la mention de leur nom dans une liste des contributeurs qui sera diffusée sur Internet (sauf s'ils nous font savoir qu'ils ne le souhaitent pas) et bénéficieront d'une information privilégiée sur le devenir du fonds (inventaire détaillé, lieux de dépôt et modalités de consultation).

MERCI D'AVANCE POUR VOTRE CONTRIBUTION !

Bruno