The Egyptian Museum, Cairo, in more peaceful times
The embattled Egyptian Museum again finds itself at the epicenter of violent protests. Alastair Beach of the Independent today reports on yesterday’s events:
By around 7 p.m. central Cairo was boiling over with angry protesters as thousands of youths fought running battles with the police and gangs of regime loyalists.
At the northern side of Tahrir Square, close to the Egyptian Museum [emphasis added], the road was littered with rocks and broken glass as young men launched missiles at scores of plain-clothed thugs standing about 200 yards away near the Ramses Hilton Hotel.
Nearby, beneath a motorway overpass close to the Egyptian Museum, three teenagers scrambled to extinguish their burning T-shirts after being hit by a petrol bomb.
Egyptologist Nicole Hansen reported this yesterday on the Facebook page of Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum!:
There are committees being organized to go protect the museum now.
Even before this news broke, the situation for Egyptian antiquities was chaotic. Once again, there is a new appointee (effective Oct. 2) as secretary general of the Supreme Council on Antiquities, the post that was famously held by long-time occupant Zahi Hawass, whose website went silent in August.
In the latest issue of Al-Ahram Weekly, Nevine El-Aref reports:
Early this week Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appointed Mustafa Amin as
the new secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)
following the resignation of Mohamed Abdel-Fattah, who had held held the post
[my link, not his] of head of Egypt’s antiquities office for less than six weeks.
Before Abdel-Fattah, Abdel-Fattah El-Banna had been named to that post, but his appointment was controversial and he was never sworn in. The new head, Amin, is former director of the SCA’s Islamic and Coptic Antiquities Department.
Al-Ahram Weekly says this about the reasons behind Abdel-Fattah’s resignation:
Abdel-Fattah accused Egypt of abandoning its antiquities sector and
leaving it in a desperate state, despite what archaeology had done for
the country over the years.He went on to say that the SCA was in debt to the tune of LE750
million to construction companies responsible for restoration work at
several sites. It had also borrowed LE61 million from banks to pay the
salaries of SCA employees, in addition to a further LE350 million from
the government, which will increase to LE400 million after the addition
of benefits.“How can I pay all these debts?” Abdel-Fattah asks. “I don’t even
have enough money to pay for the restoration work and the delayed
salaries.”
A week ago, about 200 temporary employees of the Supreme Council of the
Antiquities began peacfully picketing in front of the Egyptian
Museum, “demanding the quick fulfillment of promises made by their bosses” Al-Ahram reported. Protests have also occurred at other antiquities-related sites around the country, according to Al-Ahram Weekly.
Without peace and stability, tourism (essential to Egypt’s economic welfare) and archaeological and cultural activity are likely to be seriously compromised.
Speaking of political unrest and museums: Police were called Saturday to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum when about 200 protesters from the Occupy DC movement reportedly advanced on the building. As a result of this incident, the museum closed Saturday at 3:15 p.m., the Washington Post reported. The Post later revealed that a conservative reporter for the American Spectator, Patrick Howley, had claimed responsibility for instigating the attempt to enter the museum, so that he could journalistically “mock and undermine” the protesters’ cause.