Egypt unveils venerable museum after first phase of renovation

CAIRO — After more than three years of renovation, Egypt has announced the completion of the first development phase of the iconic Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The museum development project that began in 2019 was funded with a grant of 3 million euros ($3.2 million) from the European Union. The renovation involved upgrading the display system, including the lighting and showcases of some of the gallery rooms and halls.

The project was carried out through collaboration between an Egyptian archaeological committee and a consortium of five major European museums including the Louvre Museum in Paris and the British Museum in London.

During a ceremony on Monday, Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ahmed Issa described the Cairo museum, which was opened in 1902, as "the oldest museum of Egyptian antiquities in the world and an icon of the ancient Egyptian civilization over 120 years".

"The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir was and will remain one of the most important museums in the world. It is a destination for Egyptian visitors, foreign tourists and antiquities lovers from all countries of the world."

In remarks, Christian Berger, head of the European Union delegation to Egypt, referred to the museum as "the mother of all Egyptian museums" and "a beautiful building housing a world-class collection on behalf of humanity".

Complex project

The development project was complex because of the scope of the work undertaken, including developing a master plan for the museum's new display in five galleries, producing a detailed study of the building, and updating the information labels for the public, Berger said.

The two-floor museum holds more than 180,000 objects of iconic artifacts and ancient Egyptian masterpieces from prehistory to the Greco-Roman periods, including colossal statues, busts, statuettes, coffins, reliefs, stelae and papyri.

Some precious pieces were transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to new museums in the city to enrich their collections, including more than 20 ancient royal mummies to the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and a collection of famous King Tutankhamun to the recently built Grand Egyptian Museum.

However, "it still contains treasures that compensate for the collections taken away from it, such as the Tutankhamun collection and the royal mummies", Ali Abdel Halim, director general of the museum, said.

"They are all Egyptian museums of which we're proud. Each of them has its own nature and they complement each other," he said, describing the museum as "the mother of all the world's museums containing Egyptian antiquities".

Xinhua - Agencies