French archaeologist Jarrige dies aged 74, headed Musee Guimet

Paris (AFP) - French archaeologist Jean-Francois Jarrige, who headed the Musee Guimet in Paris for 22 years, has died aged 74 following a long illness, the prestigious museum of Asian arts said Saturday.

Born in the southwestern pilgrimage city of Lourdes on August 5, 1940, Jarrige had a doctorate in oriental archaeology and specialised in the South Asian region.

But his name was most closely associated with the Musee Guimet, which he directed from 1986 to 2008.

Jarrige was "a man engaged in his time, very sensitive to the sufferings of a region that he knew intimately and whose changes he witnessed with concern," the museum said on its website.