Berlin Egyptian Museum becomes project partner in the establishment of the Akhenaten Museum near Amarna
Press release from 11/19/2019
Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of the National Museums in Berlin committed to establishing the Akhenaten Museum in el-Minja - Parzinger signs corresponding memorandum and welcomes support from the Federal Government's Museum Agency
Since 2002, the Akhenaten Museum (Akhenaten Museum) has been under construction in el-Minja in Middle Egypt, around 250 kilometres south of Cairo. The Egyptian Museums in Hildesheim and Berlin have been involved with great commitment for years. Now, under German management, the German government is also to provide funding for the interior work and exhibition architecture in Minja. This will open a new chapter of partnership-based cooperation in the museum sector between the two countries, which will accompany all stages of a new museum building through to completion.
The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of the National Museums in Berlin, together with other partners, will also support the Egyptian curatorial team of the Akhenaten Museum in the next phase of the museum's construction. An agreement to this effect was signed today by Hermann Parzinger and the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Khaled Galal Abdelhamid, representing the Supreme Council of Antiquities and its Secretary General, Dr Mostafa Wazeri. Andreas Görgen, Head of the Department of Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, who is providing comprehensive support for the project, also took part on behalf of the German side.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK: "We signed our first letter of intent with the Egyptian Antiquities Authority back in 2013. On this basis, our cooperation in various projects has been consolidated. Of course, this is also due to the excellent connections and profound knowledge of Friederike Seyfried, Director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. I also very much welcome the fact that the German government has decided to set up a new agency for international cooperation to facilitate and support such collaborations in organisational terms."
Friederike Seyfried adds: "I am delighted that we can accompany our colleagues from el-Minja on the way to completing the Akhenaten Museum. We have been in close contact with them for a long time due to the large collection of artefacts from the Amarna period that we look after in Berlin, including the bust of Nefertiti. Against this background in particular, we also feel a special obligation to support such projects in Egypt. We work together with our Egyptian colleagues in a wide variety of areas. This includes, for example, numerous scholarships and training programmes for Egyptian museum staff at our museum. This partnership and collegial co-operation is a great benefit for both sides. In addition to museum planning and administration, we also cooperate in the field of archaeology: the rescue excavation in Qubbet el-Hawa, which has been ongoing since 2015, is our museum's first in Egypt for over 100 years."
The Akhenaten Museum (Akhenaten Museum) is located around 50 kilometres from Tell El-Amarna, the site where numerous objects from the Amarna period were found. It will mainly be dedicated to the 17-year reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti. The museum is currently scheduled to open at the end of 2022 and will then be one of the largest museums in Egypt alongside the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, the National Museum on the Tahrir and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Al-Fustat. The museum's new exhibition concept was developed in 2015 by the director of the museum, Dr Ahmed Hemeda, in collaboration with the architect Noel McCauley (Duncan McCauley & Co. KG) and Friederike Seyfried, the director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, as well as the director of the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim, Prof. Dr Regine Schulz, and the then head of the museum department at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, Ms Elham Salah Edin.
In addition, the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of the National Museums in Berlin is working together with employees of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) and Egyptian colleagues as well as four other European museums on proposals for the future of the Egyptian National Museum as part of a project sponsored by the EU Delegation in Cairo.