Italian FM visits the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square

CAIRO – 6 August 2018: Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Khaled El-Enany, and the Italian Minister of Foreign affairs, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, embarked on a tour Sunday around the temporary exhibition held at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square, displaying some important objects from Italian excavations in archaeological sites in Egypt.


The Italian Minister of Foreign affairs, Enzo Moavero Milanesi takes a photo of Tutankhamun half statue - photo via Ancient Egypt Facebook Page


Elham Salah, Head of the Museum Sector at the Ministry of Antiquities explained that the exhibition highlights the most important objects from Italian excavation missions as most of them are displayed for the first time.


Some of the artifacts displayed during the tour - Photo via Ancient Egypt Facebook Page

She pointed out that more than 20 Italian archaeological missions are working in Egypt after the approval of Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities and the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. “They work in different sites in the Valley, the Eastern Desert, the Western desert, oasis, and the Delta, as well as from Aswan in Upper Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea,” added Salah in press statements.


Italian Minister of Foreign affairs, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, inspects the Egyptian museum artifacts- photo via Ancient Egypt Facebook Page


She added that the exhibition includes 180 artifacts, the most important is a papyrus that comes from Gebelein, found by the archaeological expedition from the MuseoEgizio in Turin, it is one of the most ancient administrative papyruses.

“The papyrus dates back to the Old Kingdom. During the last century it was restored in Turin, and again in Cairo by Corrado Basile (Museum of Papyrus in Syracuse) in 2005. Corrado Basile, in fact, established the restoration laboratory for papyri in the Egyptian Museum, which was financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,”

Salah pointed out that the most famous object of the Italian discoveries is the statue of Pharaoh Merenptah (XIX dyn.) that welcomes visitors just in front of the main entrance of the museum.