The Royal Jewellery Museum stands in the elegant Alexandria district of Zizinya. The exquisite neoclassical building holds an important part of Egypt's history. On Sunday the museum was buzzing with media people, foreign and Egyptian journalists, photographers and top governmental officials. The museum was finally re-opening its doors to the public after three years of closure. On 28 January 2011, just three days after the outbreak of the 25 January Revolution, the neighbouring villa of the Alexandria governor was set on fire, and around 300 thugs climbed over the museum's iron gates. Security personnel and non-uniformed police officers stopped the mob from entering the museum and saved its unique royal jewellery collection. “When we were sure that all the vandals were away from the museum, I called the curators and asked them to evacuate the collection to ministry safes,” Ibrahim Darwish, the former museum director, told the Weekly. The jewellery was kept in the safes until earlier this month when it was returned to the Museum's exhibition halls. Before Sunday's re-opening, the building was restored, cleaned and renovated, said Ahmed Sharaf, head of the Museums Section at the Ministry of Antiquities. This included restoration of wall engravings and oil paintings, cleaning of stained glass, refinishing of parquet floors and cleaning the building's facade. Some of the exhibits, especially those with precious stones, were also restored. The museum's security system was upgraded, with new state-of-the-art security devices and cameras to monitor movements inside and outside the museum 24 hours a day. Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told reporters that the re-opening of the Royal Jewellery Museum comes within the framework of ministry efforts to re-open the country's closed museums and archaeological sites and to preserve Egypt's heritage. “The ministry is following its plan to open two new sites every month,” Eldamaty said, adding that last month alone saw the official re-opening of the Suez National Museum in the canal city of Suez and Al-Muizz Street in historic Cairo. This month, in addition to the Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria, the Hanging Church in Old Cairo is being re-opened, he said. Eldamaty said that November will see the soft opening of the cultural centre of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Al-Fustat and inauguration of the Sphinx Courtyard on the Giza Plateau. The Weekly also asked the minister about the newly recovered jewellery collection of the former ruling family, Mohamed Ali. For six decades the collection was stored in Bank Misr safes or locked away in the Central Bank of Egypt. Eldamaty said that the collection found in Bank Misr is now being documented and restored and will soon be put on display in a special hall of the Royal Jewellery Museum. The jewels in the Central Bank of Egypt were found by chance during a routine bank inventory. They were packed inside 45 wooden crates, forgotten in the Bank's vaults following their arrival there after the 1952 Revolution. Eldamaty told the Weekly that both collections will be on temporary exhibition in the museum until the ministry has prepared a Cairo venue for their permanent display. He said this could be the Prince Mohamed Ali Palace in Manial, but he refused to confirm this as the committee in charge may still select another place. He also announced that entrance to the Alexandria Museum will be free for one month for Alexandria residents in celebration of its re-opening. The museum was originally built as a summer palace for the family of Zeinab Fahmi, the wife of a descendant of Mohamed Ali. On her death, Fahmi left the palace to her daughter, Princess Fatemah Al-Zahraa, who added an east wing. Her maternal uncle, an Italian architect who also designed the Sidi Gaber Station in Alexandria, created the interior design of the palace. Following the 1952 Revolution, the government claimed the palace, though Al-Zahraa was allowed to live in it during her lifetime. In 1964 she left Alexandria and handed the palace to the government. When she died in 1983, the palace was used briefly as a presidential rest house. In 1986 former president Hosni Mubarak issued a decree designating it as a new museum for the former royal jewellery collection. In 1994 and then again in 2005 the museum was subjected to restoration as time had taken its toll on the building. The restoration work also upgraded the showcases and display areas. New lighting and ventilation systems were installed, along with a new security system connected to CCTV. The building itself was given a facelift and the walls were refinished. In October 2010, the museum was re-opened to the public. It was closed in 2011 as a result of the disturbances taking place across the country in the aftermath of the 25 January Revolution. “Closing the museum was essential to protect its unique collection from robbery or destruction of the sort that took place at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” Sharaf said. The museum has some 1,024 objects, only 665 of which are exhibited, that were once the personal possessions of the family and descendants of Mohamed Ali. Among them are magnificent pieces owned by Mohamed Ali himself and his son Said Pasha, as well as by members of the family up to King Fouad and his first wife, Princess Shuvekar. King Farouk's mother, Queen Nazli, and his wife, Queen Farida, also owned valuable pieces that are now in the museum, some of them designed and created by the French firm Boucheron. The collection includes an ornate chess set owned by Mohamed Ali, a coffee set inlaid with silver and embellished with gold, a set of gold glassware decorated with 977 diamonds and a number of medals and decorations. Gold cosmetics boxes and other items engraved with the initials of Queen Nazli are also among the jewels created by the French house of Van Cleef and Arpels. Other notable pieces include a set of jewels owned by the sisters of King Farouk; Princess Fawzia, the first wife of Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran; and Princess Fayza. There is an Indian-inspired set that was originally owned by Queen Nariman, the second wife of King Farouk. Jewels belonging to Princess Samiha and Princess Qadriya Hussein Kamel are also on show, as are medallions once worn by Prince Youssef Kamal and Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik. The interior of the museum is itself a work of art. The walls are decorated with portraits of members of the Mohamed Ali family, with brief descriptions of each of them. The ceilings were painted by Egyptian, Italian and French artists and depict tales from Greek mythology; those on the second floor include details from famous French and Italian love stories. Even the bathrooms are works of art. These and the corridors leading to them are lined with pieces of white porcelain, and the walls are painted with swimming nymphs and images from the Fables of La Fontaine and other fairy tales. Among the highlights of the museum are the wonderful stained glass panels in the main hall of the first floor, in the stairwell and the first-floor bathroom. Famous French artists of the time were commissioned to create these masterpieces.
