The National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art (' in French) is an
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily co ...
in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
,
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
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, capital = Algiers
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, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
.
History
According to
Museum with No Frontiers, the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art is the oldest museum in Algeria and Africa. The collection was set up in 1835 by
Bertrand Clauzel
Bertrand, comte Clauzel (12 December 177221 April 1842) was a Marshal of France. When asked on Saint Helena which of his Generals was the most skillful Napoleon named Clauzel along with Louis-Gabriel Suchet and Étienne Maurice GérardOjala, Jea ...
and curated by
Louis-Adrien Berbrugger. The early museum opened in 1838 with antiquities of Algerian provenance. Up until 1896, the museum had been moved to several different locations, until it settled on the Mustapha Pasha hills and was officially inaugurated there in 1897.
[National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art](_blank)
''Museumwnf.org''
The museum opened in 1897. In 1911, it was described as having "the finest collection of the kind in Algeria".
The branch of the museum that houses the Islamic collection was inaugurated in 2003. A reading room exhibiting a numismatic collection opened in 2006.
In March 2019, during the
2019–20 Algerian protests, the museum was looted. According to the Algerian ministry of culture, "criminals" used the agitation from the street protests to penetrate the museum, break and steal some of the pieces exhibited, start fires in the administration offices, and destroy registry documents. The same incident had almost happened a week before but the looters had been contained by the police. A few days later, the Algerian authorities announced that the artefacts stolen from the museum had been recovered (mainly swords and guns from the 1950s) and that the fire had actually taken place in an aisle that was under renovation.
[ Guy Boyer]
Les objets du musée des Antiquités d’Alger, pillés pendant les manifestations, ont été retrouvés
''Connaissancedesarts.com'', 12 March 2019
Description
The museum holds objects related to Algeria and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
The museum is divided into two collections: Antiquity and Islamic.
See also
*
List of museums in Algeria
References
External links
*
Descriptionon Archnet.org
Islamic museums
Museums in Algiers
Archaeological museums in Algeria
{{Islam-stub