Egypt launched a revamp of the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, promising to preserve and enhance the storied site even as it loses its most famous collection.
It will soon lose some of the treasure from King Tutankhamun’s tomb to the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open next year next to the Giza pyramids, while a collection of royal mummies is being transferred to another new site in Cairo, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
The initial restructuring of the Egyptian Museum will include the redisplay of several galleries near the entrance and the relocation of the Tanis Royal Tombs to the space vacated by the Tutankhamun collection.
Financed by 3.1 million euros of EU funding and backed by a consortium of five European museums including the British Museum and the Louvre, the project will also develop a long-term vision for the museum and, officials hope, allow it to win a listing as a UNESCO world heritage site, Reuters reported.
The three-year project is the first phase of a larger project that would see significant upgrades to the Egyptian Museum.
“The time has come to shed a new light on the museum’s rich collection, upgrade its physical structure and improve its research and programming activities to reach the highest international standards," Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany said.
For Egyptologists, the museum is the “mother” of Egyptian museums, according to Friederike Seyfried, director of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, which is also participating in the project.
