on 26 Nov embe r 2011
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.”
