The Cairo Museum

I started this article in 2010, though it was forgotten in those days by the coming of the revolution. The article featured the plight of the museum's staff, who, among other things, I was wondering if they were happy in their jobs, paid well, and if differentiating opinions from the workers to the boss might be enough for them to lose their jobs.

The end of January 2011 brought the robbery of this national museum and the flaws in the museum's security, presenting an image that the great museum, for being more than 100 years old, seems to have benefited little from its international standards. The revolution has been slower than anyone probably wanted, with the result that the tourists have left, the traveling exhibitions have come home, and the Cairo museum workers remain unpaid.

It sounds like the Cleopatra exhibition came home to Egypt from the United States early because of a dispute over the law, which may have felt that some of the pieces in that exhibition were too precious to leave Egypt in the first place. Hopefully, the officials, in partnership with international museums, can put together another traveling exhibition that can be used to fund the Cairo museum's staff, to pay their wages, and provide the museum with all of its needs to function properly and securely.

Instead of filling a room that few people visit with stolen antiquities recovered from international schemes, perhaps the museum would be better served if that gallery's recovered material were sent on tour with life-size images of stolen objects still missing. This, in practicality, would raise funds for the running of the museum while making familiar to millions of exhibition goers what the missing objects look like.

Hopefully, the people of Egypt have turned a corner and are closer to the brighter future they have sacrificed for.

Photo: AP