By Gazette Staff With 50,000 artifacts to be displayed, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will be the world's biggest museum of ancient Egyptian civilisation, Minister of Antiquities Khaled el Anani said on Sunday. The first phase of the GEM is to be finalised by the end of 2018 prior to its inauguration scheduled for the first quarter of 2019. The minister's statement came during the press conference organised by the ministry in cooperation with the ministries of investment and international cooperation and tourism. The entire collection of King Tut will be displayed in one place for the first time including more than 5,000 pieces, Anani pointed out. A huge staircase will be allocated for displaying 87 statues of kings. "The Antiquities Ministry will be the sole entity in charge of managing the artifacts, renovation centers, antiquities warehouses and exhibition halls as well as securing the whole museum," Anani stressed. Around 4,400 antiquities of the Tutankhamun collection have been moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), Anani said, adding a total of 5,000 Tutankhamun artifacts had been planned to be transferred to the site before the inauguration of the first phase of the GEM in 2019. Addressing the conference, Tourism Minister Rania el Mashat remarked that GEM is considered an investment experiment that aims to attract new brackets of tourists, namely young tourists by adopting modern techniques in displaying the artifacts. Meanwhile, Minister of Investment, Sahar Nasr thanked Japan for its keenness on supporting the project noting that Egyptian and international companies will have the chance to manage the part of the project which is related to entertainment. It is worth mentioning that the new logo of the museum was forged by a German designing company that was selected by a high-level Egyptian committee.
