News

On Saturday 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford will open six new galleries for the collections of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan). Building on the success of the Museum’s extension, which opened in 2009, this second phase of major redevelopment redisplays the world-renowned Egyptian collections to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of mummies and coffins on display. The galleries will take visitors on a chronological journey covering more than 5000 years of human occupation of the Nile Valley.

The £5 million project has received lead support from Lord Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation and other trusts, foundations and individuals. Rick Mather Architects have led the redesign and redisplay of the pre-existing Egypt galleries and the extension into the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the Museum Shop. The contractor Beard has completed the construction work in the historic building. New openings link the rooms, presenting the collections under the broad themes of Egypt at its Origins; Dynastic Egypt and Nubia; Life after Death in Ancient Egypt; The Amarna ‘Revolution’; Egypt in the Age of Empires; and Egypt meets Greece and Rome.

The Ashmolean is home to some of the finest Egyptian and Nubian collections in the country, with Predynastic and Protodynastic material which ranks amongst the most significant in the world. With new lighting, display cases and interpretation, the project completes the Ashmolean’s Ancient World Floor, comprising galleries that span the world’s great ancient civilisations – from Egypt and Nubia, Prehistoric Europe, the Ancient Near East, Classical Greece and Rome, to India, China and Japan.

“We are enormously grateful to Lord Sainsbury and the Linbury Trust for initiating this transformative project for one of the most important and popular areas of the Museum. Rick Mather’s design for the galleries now allows us to display material that, for reasons of conservation, has not been seen for up to half a century.” Dr Christopher Brown CBE, Director of the Ashmolean.

Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said, "These remarkable collections are among the most important outside Egypt and one of the Ashmolean’s most popular attractions. With an exciting series of new galleries, the redevelopment transforms opportunities for using the collections for teaching and research at all levels, and the way they are enjoyed, cared for and integrated within the wider Museum.”

The Linbury Trust
The Linbury Trust is a charitable trust; it was established by Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover KG (John Sainsbury), and his wife Anya, Lady Sainsbury, CBE, the former ballerina Anya Linden. The Linbury Trust was founded in 1973, since when it has made grants totalling more than £125 million.

Rick Mather Architects
Shortlisted by the RIBA for the 2010 Stirling Prize for the transformation of the Ashmolean Museum, Rick Mather Architects are also working in Oxford on a new quad for Keble College and have just won the competition for a new building in the centre of Worcester College. Also recently completed are the award-winning new auditorium for Corpus Christi College in Oxford and the new student residences and renewed art school at Stowe. The RIBA has just announced that the $150 million expansion and sculpture garden for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is shortlisted for the 2011 international Lubetkin Prize.

Beard
Beard is an award-winning construction company with a reputation for excellence throughout the South of England. Specialists in conservation and improvement works for historic and listed buildings, the company carries out ongoing projects for many of Oxford’s Colleges as well as the University of Oxford and clients further afield. For over one-hundred years they have been the first choice for their customers by providing innovative solutions to complex construction projects.

The Egyptian Collections At The Ashmolean
Collected over 300 years, the Ashmolean’s Egyptian holdings tell some of the most interesting stories of
archaeological discovery, which have made Egyptology so popular and fascinating. Over time the Museum has amassed iconic pieces such as the wallpainting depicting the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti; the Shrine of Taharqa from the temple at Kawa – the only complete free-standing pharaonic building in Britain; and the colossal limestone statues of the fertility god Min which date to 3300 BC. The Ashmolean’s Egyptian collections now number more than 40,000 artefacts.