MODERN EGYPT

Egypt's crown jewels on show

The Straits Times
Feb. 19, 2009
CAIRO

- EGYPT said on Wednesday it plans to put on public display crown jewels belonging the dynasty that ruled the country for 150 years until the fall of the monarchy in 1952.

The jewels have been kept under lock and key in 45 crates in the vaults of the Central Bank and will go on show in a museum in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, officials said.

Culture Minister Faruq Hosni said the jewels will be displayed to the public for the first time a museum where restoration work was launched three years ago but did not say when the exhibition would open.

Mr Hosni did not give details about the treasures that will be seen by the public for the first time, nor did he give any estimated value.

'These jewels, which were put in the central bank at the time of the 1952 revolution, will be shown at the Royal Family Museum of Jewellery,' a former royal palace that was transformed into a museum in 1986, Mr Hosni said.

Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said bank officials will hand over the crates containing the jewels and other artefacts to a committee of experts, who will sort out and evaluate them.

Mohammed Ali headed a powerful dynasty that ruled Egypt from the 19th century until the fall of the monarchy in 1952, when his descendent, the flamboyant King Faruq, was deposed by army officers and forced into exile.

Mohammed Ali - an Albanian-born commander of an Ottoman army sent to drive Napoleon out of Egypt - was considered the founder of modern Egypt.

-- AFP