http://www.thecairopost.com/news/167699/topnews/1025-greco-roman-artifacts-transported-to-grand-egyptian-museum

1025 Greco-Roman artifacts transported to Grand Egyptian Museum

Sep. 17, 2015 15:41

Egyptian archaeologists move statues of pharaohs at the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids in Cairo - AFP

By Rany Mostafa

CAIRO: The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) received 1,025 artifacts Wednesday from the Antiquities Ministry’s storehouses in Alexandria, Youm7 reported.
The artifacts will be on display during the inauguration of the GEM, scheduled for 2018.
“Some 766 artifacts, spanning several eras of Egypt’s Greco-Roman history (330 B.C.-395A.D.,) 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 artifacts. The other collection of artifacts 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 artifacts 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.