Lightning effects depicting the sarcophagus Egyptian King Tutankhamun light up the sky during the opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) . AFP
The new iconic museum presents the history of Egypt in a detailed, perfectly documented manner, from the prehistoric to the Greco-Roman era, and houses the greatest and most magnificent treasures of ancient Egypt. Characteristically, it is also the largest museum and institution in the world dedicated to a single civilization. Among its many exhibits are the complete treasures of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, displayed together for the first time since his tomb’s discovery in 1922, and the fully restored Khufu funerary boat.
The Grand Egyptian Museum ranks among the most advanced globally, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and facilities for the protection and preservation of exhibits, and employs the latest digital and conservation technologies to preserve and display more than 100,000 artifacts. The new museum has been rightly described by Egyptian archaeologists as a ‘new pyramid’ and is in itself a masterwork of modern engineering. The museum has already won the 2024 Prix Versailles for architectural excellence as one of the world’s most beautiful museums. The Grand Egyptian Museum is not just an important museum on a global scale; it also ranks among modern Egypt's most significant mega projects. It is the nation's first eco-friendly museum and another great project completed under the presidency of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The new museum highlights the importance of the unification of monuments and cultural artifacts. Egypt and Greece, as two ancient nations and modern states that are inheritors of two great civilizations, face similar challenges concerning the protection of their cultural identity and antiquities. There are emblematic Egyptian and Greek antiquities outside our borders: the bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Berlin Museum, the Rosetta Stone, and the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum. These are part of our national civilization and historical cultures, and their rightful place is in our countries in the near future. On a diplomatic level, Egypt and Greece can create a cultural alliance—a Forum for the Repatriation of Stolen Antiquities—most emphatically for those of great symbolic value to our nations. In an era of technological breakthroughs, such as advanced digital 3D printing, foreign museums that hold emblematic Egyptian and Greek antiquities can benefit by hosting faithful copies. There are no excuses for denying the repatriation of stolen antiquities and retribution of historical justice. The Rosetta Stone, the Nefertiti bust, and the Parthenon Marbles have to return to their rightful owners.
The historical past forms a fundamental aspect of our current national identity. Culture may be international, but it is also national and a component of our modern identities. Repatriation of antiquities to modern state-of-the-art museums, such as the Grand Egyptian Museum, is equivalent to historic justice. The monumental Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, attest to this truth: we are proud of our ancient cultures, and we will defend history vigorously as part of our modern identities.
*The writer is an adjunct lecturer in geopolitics at the University of Athens in Greece.
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