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Egypt's Islamic art museum reopens three years after car bomb
Egypt's Museum of Islamic Art will reopen today three years after it was badly damaged by a car bomb that blew up outside a nearby police headquarters.
The museum, which is home to one of the world’s most important collections of Muslim art, has been closed since January 2014 when the explosion ripped into the building.
The blast damaged 179 artifacts but the museum said its experts had been able to repair all but ten of them. The restored objects will go back on display with special gold labels.
Several glass medieval lamps from Cairo mosques were shattered in the blast and the museum said it had been unable to piece them back together.
The Egyptian government hailed the museum’s reopening as sign of stability even though the country is regularly wracked by violence and attacks from extremists.
“The inauguration of the Museum of Islamic Art embodies Egypt’s victory against terrorism, its capability and willingness to repair what terrorism has damaged, and to stand against terrorist attempts to destroy its heritage,” said Khaled El-Enany, the minister of antiquities.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president, officially opened the building on Wednesday in a ceremony that was closed to the public and to the media.
Mr Sisi has faced mounting criticism over his handling of the economy and in recent weeks his aides have been careful to keep him away from the press, even from media groups that are supportive of his government.
Tourism has slumped in Egypt since a Russian airliner was blown up the Islamic State (Isil) shortly after it left Sharm el-Sheikh in October 2015 and Egypt’s government hopes the museum’s opening will help coax foreigners to return.
The museum was first opened in 1903 and it stores around 100,000 artifacts, of which only around 5,000 can be displayed at any one time. The collection includes pieces from early Islamic history through to the Ottoman empire and from across the Islamic world.
There are some pieces made by Jews and Christians, a symbol of Islam's tolerance, said Ahmed Al-Shoky, the museum's director. "The message of the Museum of Islamic Art is that whether you are Muslim or not you are welcome to be a creator if you have contributed to the Islamic civilization."
The central Cairo museum has spent most of the 21st century closed. It shut in 2002 for redevelopment and did not reopen until 2010, only to shut again in 2011 during the Egyptian revolution.
The latest restoration was financed with a £6.5 million gift from the UAE along with financing and technical help from Italy, Germany, the US and Unesco.