BERLIN 16 Oct 2009 Historic Neues Museum opens after restoration

Berlin's historic Neues Museum opens again on 16 Oct, 150 years after its first opening and after a restoration project that has lasted a decade. One of the most ambitious building projects in Prussia when it opened in 1859, the museum was severely damaged from Allied air raids during World War II. It was situated in what was East Germany, and there was little thought to restoring it until after the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago.

David Chipperfield, the British architect, said he tried to "capture the damage of war and the 60 years following" in the renovation.

The muswum houses some 2,500 archaeological treasures, including ancient and classical antiquities. Its Egyptian collection includes a bust of Queen Nefertiti.

The building, which had remained derelict since the war, is the third of the five museums to have been restored to its former glory on the Museum Island, a UNESCO cultural heritage site. With Prussian thoroughness, the five great museums and art galleries of the nation were built together in this one place between 1825 and 1930. Badly damaged in WWII, they then found themselves on the wrong side of the wall, their collections divided between East and West. The island has been Germany’s biggest cultural reconstruction project. The Alte Nationalgalerie was renovated in 2001 and work on the Bode Museum was completed five years later. The Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum are due to be restored by 2026.

The Neues opened for three days in Mar 2009 as a taster. It is expected to attract at least 1 million visitors a year. Mar/09

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Berlin's Restored Neues Museum Handed Over to City Officials (DPA 9 Mar 2009)
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/__PR/GIC/2009/03/09__NeuesMuseum__S.html