The reconstruction of Berlin's Museum Island is making strong progress
Press release from 10/12/2006
The opening of the splendidly renovated and technically modernised Bode Museum next week (first day of opening on Thursday) is another milestone in the restoration of the museum ensemble and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Alte Nationalgalerie opened its doors back in 2001 following its renovation. The Neues Museum, the future home of the Egyptian Nefertiti, is currently a construction site where work is proceeding at full speed. After completion in 2008, the museum, which has been in ruins since the end of the war, will be opened to the public in 2009. The course for the Pergamon Museum was set at the beginning of the year and the planning contract was awarded. Schinkel's Altes Museum is best preserved and will therefore not be renovated until 2012.
The federal government, which has assumed sole financial responsibility for this largest cultural construction site since 2003, is thus clearly signalling its strong commitment to this cultural centre in the capital. In view of the financial situation, the federal government and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation have agreed on a joint timetable that gives priority to the renovation and modernisation of the historic building fabric over the new additions. However, as the new entrance building planned by David Chipperfield (James Simon Gallery) will have a decisive function for the future Museum Island, the President of the Foundation is currently working with political representatives to find a way of bringing forward this key element of the masterplan adopted in 1999 and tackling it as soon as possible.
"It is not enough to reconstruct the Museum Island. Hospitality, orientation and information for the four million visitors per year expected in the future can only be provided with a new building of appropriate quality. The sooner we have the James Simon Gallery, the sooner the full impact of this location will be felt in our country and beyond," explains Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.