1025 Graeco-Roman artefacts moved to Grand Egyptian Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) received 1,025 artefacts Wednesday from the Antiquities Ministry’s storehouses in Alexandria, Egyptian sources reported. The artefacts will be on display during the inauguration of the GEM, scheduled for 2018.

Egyptian archaeologists move statues of pharaohs at the new Grand Egyptian 
Museum near the Giza pyramids in Cairo [Credit: AFP]

“Some 766 artefacts, spanning several eras of Egypt’s Graeco-Roman history (330 BC-395AD) were brought from Maria Storehouse in Alexandria and have been deposited in the museum’s restoration lab,” General Director of the GEM Dr. Tarek Tawfik stated Wednesday.

Tanagra statues, a sarcophagus, and oil vessels are among the artefacts. The other collection of artefacts was brought from Alexandria’s antique storehouse of al-Nahaseen, Tawfik said.

“All necessary measures have been taken according to the latest scientific techniques to ensure the safety of the artefacts during transportation,” Caretaker Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said in a statement Wednesday.

GEM, situated on 120 acres of land, is located 2 km southwest of the Giza Pyramids and was scheduled to be inaugurated in August 2015 but due to funding issues, according to Damaty’s statement in Al-Ahram Thursday; it will not be inaugurated before 2018.

The construction of the three-phase project, which includes the construction of the museum’s main building and implementation of the master plan, landscape parks and surrounding site infrastructure, began in March 2012 with two phases completed so far.

Author: Rany Mostafa | Source: The Cairo Post [September 17, 2015]