After five years of restoration, the Egyptian Museum in Turin announced the completion of its $53.6 million revamp on April 1, which now puts 6,500 Ancient Egyptian artifacts on display dating back to as long as 4,000 BC.
Aiming to make the Egyptian Museum of Turin the second most important in the world for Egyptology enthusiasts, the reinstallations includes one of the world’s most significant papyrus collections, an important statue of Ramsis II, the coffin gallery and the tomb of Kha.
“Our museum needs to be back on the international scene,” said Museum director Christian Greco, adding that “for too many years we have been absent. For too many years, the focus has been on building and renovating the museum.”
In an attempt to walk the visitor through history, the museum is now arranged in a chronological order starting from the 4th century BC to the Coptic period –which starts around 3rd century AD-. This all comes in a new refurbished presentation of light systems and 3-D displays of photos and films.
“It is a very important improvement from an archaeological and Egyptological point of view,” said Guillemette Andreu, former director of Egyptology at the Louvre in Paris and member of the Turin Egyptian Museum board who toured the museum.
“Even if you are not a scholar of Egypt, you can see how great this civilization was,” Andreu added.
She praised how the showcased artifacts not only hold historical value, but how they narrate glimpses of the ancient culture and its daily life scenes.
While most Italian museums are still working on providing its visitors with a wide range of language support, the Egyptian Museum is already one step ahead with its variety of available languages, including not only English, but Arabic as well.
The Museum which was founded in 1824 has now been expanded to double its size to span four floors, and now fully joins the grand Egyptology displays across Europe, from the British Museum in London, to the Louvre in Paris, and the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus collection in Berlin.
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