Visiting the Aisha Fahmi Palace overlooking the Nile in the Cairo district of Zamalek recently, a building that is supposed to be reopening to the public as an Arts Centre in May, one finds that the restoration work is more or less at the same stage as it was a year ago, Nevine El-Aref writes. There are the same pieces of iron scaffolding fixed up against the walls and the same green plastic sheeting covering the building's exquisite Italianate architecture. Stacks of ceramic tiles still surround its entrance, together with heaps of wooden and iron beams. Inside, the restored marble, golden wooden lintels and painted walls within are all covered with transparent plastic sheeting to protect them until its official inauguration in May. It seems that the Palace is still under restoration, despite the May opening date. It was supposed to reopen in 2013 after the restoration work started in 2010. However, the work was put on hold following the 25 January Revolution, largely as a result of the financial problems faced by the Ministry of Culture and the concomitant decline in tourism. The Ministry of State for Antiquities also stopped its financial support for the Culture Ministry, which had represented 10 per cent of its income. However, in early 2013 the ministry found the funding required to continue the restoration, saying that the Palace would be reopened to the public at the end of the year. This did not happen, raising the question of why the palace is still closed despite all the efforts made to complete its restoration. This was a question put to Minister of Culture Saber Arab during his recent inspection tour of the palace, along with Mohamed Abu Seada, head of the National Organisation for Urban Harmony, and Khaled Galal, head of the Culture Development Fund. “I will personally talk to Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim in a bid to speed up the approval of the permanent committee in order to complete the unfinished work,” Arab said. He added that the palace could not be reopened to the public before the installation of new alarms, air-conditioning and elevators. Arab said that the palace was intended to be a major cultural and artistic landmark and that it would be officially inaugurated in May. He added that Salah Al-Meligui, head of the ministry's fine arts section, had been asked to dedicate some of the palace's halls to an exhibition of 19th-century paintings, tapestry and glass which were now in storage. These pieces would be exhibited on a rotating basis in order to provide the new centre's visitors with a new collection to look at every month. Mohamed Al-Essawi, consultant to the restoration project, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Ministry of State for Antiquities had made the completion of the restoration work more difficult. “As a result of the attitude of the ministry after the listing of the palace on Egypt's Heritage List, there have been many complications, and these have delayed the work on the building,” he said. He added that the restoration work had meant to be completed within 18 months, but “50 per cent of this has not been completed.” Only 20 per cent of the work has been achieved, “which means we will need almost another five years to accomplish the rest of the restoration work.” “30 per cent of the work was halted after the revolution,” Yasmine Nasr, manager of the restoration project, told the Weekly. Nasr said that thanks to a budget of LE25 million, the Arab Contractors Company had been able to implement 70 per cent of the restoration work over the last four years. But there had been two periods when little work could be done, the first during the 25 January Revolution and the second more recently owing to a lack of funds. When the restoration work was begun, the palace was in a very bad state of conservation, she said. Cracks had spread over the walls and ceilings, paintings had fallen into decay and parts of the white marble staircase were destroyed or missing.The basement was also in a bad way owing to the capillary action of water from the Nile. The restoration work was carried out in two phases. The first started with the consolidation of the walls and ceilings.cracks were restored and walls painted. The marble stairs were restored and the missing marble elements were replaced by new ones. The basement was also consolidated to support the building. The roots of trees that had grown beneath the basement and led to its becoming dangerous were got rid of, and the trees in the area were cut back and their roots confined within wooden frames to prevent similar problems in the future. The tapestries in the building were restored, as was its stained glass, ornaments, wooden window frames and paintings. New lighting and air-conditioning systems were installed, as well as a state-of-the-art security system that included indoor and outdoor cameras connected to a common circuit. The basement is now being prepared for its new role as a temporary exhibition space, while the other seven halls of the palace will be used for permanent exhibitions. A cafeteria and bookstore are also being built on the palace roof. Plans are being made for the replanting and landscaping of the garden, including the construction of a small theatrical stage overlooking the Nile to host different music and dance performances as well as plays. The approval of the ministry is still pending for this. The 2,700 square metre palace was originally constructed by Italian architect Antonio Lasciac in 1907 to be the residence of Ali Fahmi, head of the army during the reign of king Fouad I. After his death, his sister Aisha made the palace her home, spending the rest of her life there until her death in 1962. The Ministry of Culture then bought the palace, transforming it into offices. In 1975 the palace was ceded to the Fine Art and Literature Authority and converted into the first dedicated arts complex in Egypt. This complex, the Mogammaa Al-Funun, went on to host several international exhibitions displaying the works of modern artists such as Picasso and Dali. In the early 1990s, the palace was put on Egypt's Heritage List because of its distinguished architectural style and exquisite artistic elements.
