Museums

Neues Museum re-openening
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/berlin-neues-museum-reopens/story?id=8859496

For the first time since WWII all of the galleries of Berlin's Neues Museum are open to the public, as of 16th October. It has been closed since 1939 and its contents either went on display elsewhere or were put into storage. The star exhibit is the Nefertiti bust, which is the topic of so much dispute between Egypt and Germany, and this dispute takes up a lot of the article.

Also discussed at Spiegel Online. And there's a video on You Tube.

Sneak preview of the Ashmolean Museum's rennovation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/26/ashmolean-museum-architecture

The Ashmolean is generally regarded as Britain's earliest museum. Amongst many other galleries it has a fine Egyptology collection spread over several galleries, with a lot of Amarna material. The building has a fine facade but its interior was crying out for an overhaul and this overhaul is now nearing completion. I very much look forward to hopping on a train and seeing it!