Sunday, December 05, 2010

Egyptian galleries at Ashmolean to close for refurbishment

This Is Oxfordshire

A £5m redevelopment at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum to showcase the museum’s world famous collections from ancient Egypt has been given planning permission by Oxford City Council.

Work will begin immediately to transform the Egyptian galleries on the ground floor in the original Ashmolean building on Beaumont Street.

The four existing galleries will be refurbished and a fifth will be created by transforming the Ruskin Gallery, which is currently used as the Ashmolean shop.

The Egyptian galleries will close on January 1 with the new galleries expected to open in 12 months’ time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cant believe it. I am visiting oxford,cambridge and london in order to see the egyptian collections at the ashmolean, fitzwilliam and petrie museums as part of my 50th birthday celebration and I have just discovered that the ashmolean galleries are closed. If I had realised sooner I wouldnt have booked three nights in Oxford.

Oh well!!

Andie said...

Oh dear - I am so sorry that you had that experience. The Ashmolean website does have full details about the closures - they are planning to open again in late November. I hope that the rest of your trip has been a success, though.