Since closing its six museums after the revolution broke out, Alexandria has lost 190 million EGP (US $24 million) this past year. Corruption has swallowed all operational resources and although museum employees have submitted many reports to re-open the cultural institutions, most of the files have been lost in the maze of Egyptian bureaucracy.

Since closing its six museums after the revolution broke out, Alexandria has lost 190 million EGP (US $24 million) this past year. Corruption has swallowed all operational resources and although museum employees have submitted many reports to re-open the cultural institutions, most of the files have been lost in the maze of Egyptian bureaucracy.

“We called the security forces to provide protection in order to reopen the museums,” said Alexandria Deputy Governor Major General Ihab Farouk, “but they said the security situation is too unstable.”  This historic city, with its world famous Greek, ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic sites is now without a single museum open to visitors.

Doors to the National Museum, which contains 1800 ancient artifacts from all ages, the Mosaic Museum, Museum of Jewelry, with its invaluable collection of royal rarities and the Museum of Fine Arts have all remained closed. While at the beginning of the revolution all the country’s museums were at risk, when the police disappeared from the streets, museum experts firmly believe that the same excuse, while convincing eighteen months ago, no longer stands because the museums revenues would be sufficient to fund alternative solutions, including hiring private security firms.

Endless restoration 

Also closed since the revolution are the Museum of Aquatic Species and the Greek-Roman Museum.

Archeologist and professor at the Archeology Department of the Faculty of Letters, Salah Lutfi explains that the Roman Museum was closed in 2003 for restoration purposes and the authorities promised that all works would be completed in two years. “However, everyone was surprised by the statement of the Supreme Council for Antiquities that the allocated funds were insufficient for development works and the museum was closed until further notice.”

These are merely excuses, says Lutfi, to cover a kind of “robbery” that is not affected by the security situation or by the number of policemen on duty. He claims that all restoration funds were stolen by officials from the Supreme Council for Antiquities. “I filed two reports (numbered 158 and 165) to the attorney general, against SCA, namely, the former minister of antiquities, the legal advisor of antiquities, head of the Central Administration of the Antiquities of Lower Egypt and chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, in which I pinpointed acts of corruption and illegal disbursement of funds under the development budget item.”  Lufti has yet to receive a response from the Attorney General.

Some things never change

Alexandria Attorney General Office claims that it referred the reports to the Central Auditing Organization, which has kept silent, claiming that the complaints are under investigation. Deputy Governor Major General Ihab Farouk, though admitting SCA negligence in handling the issue of archeological tourism in the city, denied his knowledge of any corruption reports or complaints filed against the SCA officials.

Farouk explained the lack of action by claiming that the governor’s office had no jurisdictions to handle corruption cases in the antiquities sector.

Lutfi’s reports against SCA officials are not the first of their kind. Last year, the SCA and other government institutions became the target of a storm of reports against their senior officials, which coincided with a wave of protests and sit-ins organized by sector employees who calling for purification, but demands were failed to be interpreted into genuine reforms.

The dismissal of the former SCA general secretary Zahi Hawwas, who received a jail sentence for theft of antiquities, may be the only significant change since the revolution.

Suspicion still hovers over other top SCA officials, including former head of the Central Administration of Antiquities of Lower Egypt, Mohammed Abdel Maqsoud, whose term in office was marked by the closure of all Alexandria museums. Many people were surprised by his appointment as SCA general secretary replacing Mr. Hawwas, though he was accused by human rights groups of “illicit gains” as stated in the “Report on Corruption in the Antiquities Sector in Egypt from 9/1/2001 to 23/1/2010,” issued by the Meeting for Development and Human Rights. An additional report was filed against him by his own employees citing the same accusations.

Antiquities officials cry foul play

Personnel Director at Alexandria Antiquities Sector, Mohammed Taqi Eddine, points out that the corruption case filed by him and his colleagues (mainly Abdel Rahman al-Aydi, head of the Central Administration of the Antiquities of Lower Egypt and Archeologist Noor Eddine Abdel Samad Jaber, general director of the Administration of Archeological Sites at the Ministry of Culture) against Dr. Mohammed Abdel Maqsoud was attached with the necessary documentation.

“The Report held No 1294 and was submitted on 17 February 2011,” Taqi Eddine maintains “and investigation started accordingly and they talked to us only once. Maqsoud was supposed to be called for questioning but this has not happened.”

Alexandria museums remain in captivity until further notice as a result of the government failure to restructure the nation’s cultural institutions.