A Museological Exercise in Modern Egypt: The Renovation Project of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 1975-1977

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Tourism Guidance - Faculty of Tourism and Hotels - University of Sadat City

Abstract

Due to the deteriorating state of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Egyptian and American governments agreed in 1975 that the proceeds of Tutankhamun Exhibition in the USA 1976-1979 would be assigned for the renovation of this museum or any other cultural projects in Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as the main organizer of the exhibition, accomplished an assessment process of the situational condition of the Egyptian Museum which showed that it needed a general cleaning, repainting, rearrangement of the display sequence of Tutankhamun’s objects and the restoration of several Tutankhamun’s items before their removal to be displayed in the USA. This research illustrates the importance of this project, the role of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the renovation process. This paper utilizes primary source documents in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Archives in New York as raw evidence to analyze and interpret this museological exercise in 1970s.

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