National Bank of Egypt Contributes $5 million to Grand Egyptian Museum

The state-owned National Bank of Egypt is allocating $5 million for the Grand Egyptian Museum Project, to finance the construction of its Restoration Centre.

Hisham Okasha – NBE Deputy Chairman – stated that the bank’s Board of Directors approved the $5 million contribution to finance the establishment of the Restoration Centre of the under-construction Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), located at the Giza plateau next to the Pyramids.

This comes after Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities had launched a fundraising campaign for the GEM’s Restoration Centre. In this respect, the Ministry said it is providing EGP 25 million to finance the GEM project.

One of the centre’s goals is to become a regional restoration hub, and it will work on documenting and restoring all the artefacts received by the Grand Egyptian Museum for its opening.

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), also known as the Giza Museum, is a planned museum of artifacts of ancient Egypt. Described as the largest archaeological museum in the world, the museum is scheduled to open in 2015. The museum will be sited on 50 hectares (120 acres) of land approximately two kilometers from the Giza pyramids and is part of a new master plan for the plateau.