25 Mar 2019
Basra Museum opens three new galleries in Saddam Hussein’s former palace
BY Luke Cloherty
Based inside the former palace of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Basra Museum has just opened three new galleries – quadrupling its display space following its launch in 2016.
The museum, which displays archaeological artefacts and antiquities from Iraq, opened the new galleries on 19 March.
The new galleries display 1,200 artefacts, many of them transferred from Baghdad’s National Museum. Covering the periods of Sumer, Assyria and Babylonia respectively, the galleries display objects including statues, cylinder seals, tablets and jewellery dating from 3000BC to 550BC.
"The museum will prove to be a model for the region, and even for the Gulf," said John Curtis, a former British Museum keeper and chairman of the Friends of Basrah Museum.
The new galleries were financed through a £530,000 grant from the UK government’s Cultural Protection Fund – a £30m (US$39.6m, €35m) fund managed by the British Council, which looks to safeguard heritage in 12 wartorn countries in the Middle East and Africa.
The project also includes an education room and has provided training for museum staff and volunteers in labelling and visitor services.
The late Iraqi-born archaeologist Lamia Al Gailani – a founding trustee of the UK charity Friends of Basra Museum – played a key role in the project’s delivery.
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