Click to view caption That elegant landmark in Cairo's busy Tahrir Square, the neo-classical style Egyptian Museum, is being titivated for a grand celebration. A hundred years ago Khedive Abbas Helmi I, watched by princes and high-ranking governmental officials, cut the ribbon at the museum's opening. This was Egypt's treasure house, and a shrine to its past. Throughout that glamorous age and since emperors, empresses, kings and queens, presidents, scholars and thousands upon thousands of tourists have visited the Egyptian Museum and gazed in awe on the marvellous works of art which fill every niche and corner. So as to pay homage to all who shared in its construction, the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and tourism expert Elwi Farid, who organised the 1998 International Congress of Egyptologists in Cairo, have made preparations for the museum's centenary one of their top priorities. Throughout the three-day-long festival which will run from 9 to 11 December a forum for recent museological theories, studies and techniques will be held at the Cairo Opera House. An estimated 400 researchers and museum directors from all over the world are expected to attend the sessions, lectures and exhibitions. On the occasion of the opening and closing ceremonies, two receptions will be held in an air-conditioned Arabian tent. SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass said the highlight of the events would be an exhibition in the basement of the museum featuring "The Hidden Treasures of the Egyptian Museum", in which 300 objects stashed for years in the dusty vaults of the building or forgotten in some storehouse would be displayed for the first time. "For the last four months we have been digging around in the basement of the Egyptian Museum and in the stores of about 15 major sites in Egypt to extract these objects. Few people have ever seen them before," Hawass said. "We always think that the objects of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun on display at the museum's upper floor are the whole collection found in his tomb in 1922. But on the contrary, during our excavations inside the basement we have stumbled upon another 40 pieces from the tomb, of which 30 are gold amulets and small pieces of jewellery meant to protect the wearer against evil or bring good luck." Other items never seen before by the public include two well-preserved, Old Kingdom painted limestone statues, one of a seated scribe and the other of a servant baking bread in front of an oven. Both were found in the storage room at the faculty of antiquities at Cairo University, where they had lain since being excavated by the late Egyptologist Mohamed Bakr in the last century. Mamdouh El-Damati, the museum's director, described the scribe as having "a slim, muscular body and finely-detailed face", while the servant "puts her right hand to her head to protect her face from the heat of the oven". Other objects include a limestone statue of Ramses II as a sphinx and holding an Amun- shaped jar from the Karnak cachette, gold amulets discovered in the tomb of a governor of Bahariya oasis, a painted limestone statue from Giza of the priest Kay sitting on a chair with his son and daughter beside him, and a 22nd-Dynasty gold, cobra-shaped crown from the Tell Meqdam area. In addition to these objects never seen before, the most beautiful of those items recovered from abroad will also be shown in a special exhibition hall in the basement. In order to be able to set up the display of these priceless objects to full advantage and enhance their distinctive features, the Ministry of Culture has carried out major restoration of the basement. "It was really in dire need of restoration anyway," said Ayman Abdel-Moneim, head of the restoration project. He said the basement had not been restored since the museum's founding a century ago, and the artefacts it housed were never reorganised despite their ever-increasing number. "When we first stepped inside the basement it was a mess," he said. "The artefacts were shelved on wooden and iron bars. There were dust and cobwebs all over the place, while the walls were full of cracks. Now, with the project nearing completion, the basement is turning into a mausoleum worthy of the display of a hitherto unknown but essential part of Egypt's heritage." The work was described as a tremendous challenge, and all those involved in the restoration and rediscovery of forgotten works of art were overwhelmed by the momentous project. "It was not an easy task," said Hussein Ahmed Hussein, the engineer in charge of the basement restoration. "It was so filled with antiquities that it was difficult for our workers to get in at all." He said that before they could start work they had to put the 30,000 stored artefacts in a safe place in the basement. "The place was swept, all the cracks had to be treated, and the walls were consolidated," he said. To provide an ethereal ambiance, the walls were plastered and painted dark blue, the colour chosen for one of the three newly- converted jewellery rooms in the museum upstairs. "A fibre-optic lighting system will be installed to allow to visitors to see the treasures in bright light, while protecting the exhibits from the destructive glare of the sun," Abdel-Moneim said. A special centenary logo is being prepared. "It will feature the façade of the Egyptian Museum with the number 100 written above it," Hawass said. "Posters featuring selected items from the new display area as well as other chosen objects of the museum will be displayed all over the country." The design for the centenary medal of honour is being prepared by sculptor Mahmoud Mabrouk, who helped restore the Sphinx. The programme is being carefully worked out well in advance. At the opening ceremony former directors, curators and museum staff who helped spruce up the museum and the new basement galleries will be honoured for their service and devotion. A 40-minute documentary film relating the history of the Egyptian Museum over the last century will be screened, and three publications will be distributed to those attending. The first will be a brochure with detailed information about the new exhibition, the second will cover museological lectures given during the festival, and the third will feature artefacts currently on exhibition at the museum. Farid said that in collaboration with the postal and Mint Authorities a collection of stamps, silver and gold coins bearing the centenary logo would be issued to commemorate to this momentous occasion. "These are only a few of the highlights being planned for the celebrations," Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said. "This is not only the centennial anniversary of one of the greatest museums in the world, but is a clear indication that it is a living museum, moving from 1902 to 2003. "As soon as the ceremonies are over, the scheme is to develop a scheduled plan for the museum complex, and this will be implemented over a period of seven months," Hosni said. Without touching the architectural integrity of the original building, a new visitors' path will be laid out starting at the museum's current entrance gate, proceeding through the garden exhibits and then going through the museum's exhibition halls. After the tour visitors will exit to an annex with new gift and book shops and a conference hall. The present offices of the museum's curators will be transferred to the annex, where an archaeological school for children will be located along with the laboratories and library. "In summer, the temperature in Egypt reaches 40 degrees Celsius which is good for neither artefacts nor visitors, so a central air- conditioning system is being installed" Hosni added. "An Italian museologist has already been hired to help reorganise the exhibits in the museum building and to arrange more appropriate lighting and labels."
