Ashmolean Museum unveils second big revamp
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Only eight months after the new Ashmolean was opened by the Queen following a £61m extension scheme, the museum has submitted plans to refurbish its Egyptian galleries.
The work would focus on part of the ground floor in the original Ashmolean building in Beaumont Street which was largely untouched by the major expansion.
It will complete the museum’s new Ancient World Floor, made up of galleries spanning the world’s great ancient civilisations, including Egypt, Rome and Classical Greece.
The four existing Egyptian galleries will be refurbished and a fifth gallery created by transforming the Ruskin Gallery, now occupied by the Ashmolean shop which will move to the lower ground floor, next to the cafe.
The museum’s collections have included important Egyptian artefacts since 1683, when the museum was founded. The collection now contains about 40,000 objects, with some recognised as the finest outside Cairo.
The shrine of Taharqa, the largest free-standing ancient Egyptian building in the UK, and the human and animal mummies are still among the Ashmolean’s biggest attractions.
If planning approval is granted work would begin in October. The Egyptian galleries would be closed completely from January, reopening late next year.
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