Torched government headquarters to be returned to Egyptian Museum
The Art Newspaper
National Democratic Party’s home to be demolished and land turned into gardens.
Following a popular petition, and pressure from the Ministry of Antiquities, the derelict former headquarters of Egypt’s National Democratic Party is to be demolished and the land returned to the Egyptian Museum.
The land, originally used to transport artefacts directly from the River Nile to the museum’s stores, was taken by the government in 1954 for the construction of the political party’s
April 11, 2014
offices. It will now be developed and become part of the museum’s gardens. The fate of the structurally unstable building, immediately next to the Egyptian Museum, had been debated ever since it was torched during the January 2011 revolution.
Suggestions ranged from renovating it as a hotel, to demolishing it and transforming the land into a park or open-air museum. The petition, posted on Change.org by “Supporters of the Egyptian Museum”, and signed by 1,825 people, argued that the land would serve as a buffer zone to protect the museum from future damage.
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