http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/world-museum-liverpool-egyptian-galleries-9974386
World Museum Liverpool Egyptian galleries close for refurbishment
New Mummy Room and thousands of artefacts to go on show after £800,000 work
World Museum Liverpool’s Ancient Egypt galleries are set to close on Sunday night at the start of a 12-month, £800,000 refurbishment.
The redevelopment will treble the number of artefacts on display – some of which have never shown publicly before.
A a new ‘Mummy Room’ will be created to display 12 of the museum’s collection of mummies, twice the number currently on show.
World Museum has received £300,000 from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Wolfson Foundation towards the expansion and improvement of the galleries.
The new galleries will tell the fascinating story of how Liverpool acquired its world-renowned collection and aims to recreate the grandeur of the display that was lost when the Museum was hit by an incendiary bomb during the May Blitz in World War II.
Dr Ashley Cooke, the head of Antiquities and curator of Egyptology, said: “We’ve got the chance to expand the size of the gallery to give a better visitor experience. We’re planning to double the space, or even increase that – we’re still in the design phase.
“The public will be able to see more, but the plans will also give more space around the objects, with better viewing opportunities and LED lighting, and improved environmental conditions.
“And we’ll also be able to tell more stories.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work with the mummies collection over the last few years, and we have a lot more data now. We want the public to interact with the artefacts, but also people’s lives.“You can look on the faces of people who lived 2-3,000 years ago. We want to humanise the collection more.”
The project will:
- Create a new ‘Mummy Room’ to display 12 mummies. The room will be housed in a restored gallery space that closed to visitors 35 years ago.
- Highlight star objects and recreate the original pre-World War II display.
- Use animation to bring to life a Book of the Dead, a four metre-long papyrus roll from the tomb of Djed-Hor.
- Create visually stunning displays showcasing the diversity, size and significance of the collection.
World Museum has one of the largest collections of Ancient Egyptian and Nubian antiquities in the UK, with more than 16,000 artefacts ranging from 5000BC to 642AD.
Until the end of the Victorian era, Liverpool’s Egyptian collection – donated by Liverpool goldsmith Joseph Mayer in 1867 – was the largest after the British Museum and was displayed in the main hall and adjoining galleries.
In the May Blitz of 1941, more than 3,000 Egyptian objects were destroyed.
Over the next 40 years, the collection increased in size with 10,000 new acquisitions, but the dedicated gallery that opened in 1976 was modest. Just two mummies out of the collection of 23 were displayed.
The Ancient Egypt Gallery was refurbished in 2007, and 1,400 objects were displayed, including six mummies. Since it reopened in December 2008, it has attracted more than two million visitors.
A number of temporary Egyptian exhibits will remain on show in the World Museum while the refurbishment work takes place.
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