Apostolos Kouroupakis
A few days ago, President Nikos Christodoulides and Deputy Minister of Culture Lina Kassianidou, together with other officials of the Republic of Cyprus, attended the inauguration of Cairo’s new treasure, the Grand Egyptian Museum. I’m sure they admired its magnificence and saw for themselves how a monumental vision can, at long last, come to life, even if it takes years. Work began in 2005 and finished in 2025, delayed by political turbulence and financial strain. The museum now houses about 100,000 artifacts and covers 470,000 square meters. All told, it took twenty years from groundbreaking to completion, though the project was first announced back in 1992.
Here at home, in the country that prides itself on its culture, we’ve been talking about our own new museum for roughly the same amount of time. The need arose decades ago, of course, but the circumstances never favored such ambitious plans. By 1993 the idea had resurfaced; the estimated cost then was £15 million. MP Nikos Moussiouttas remarked that what was needed was “a decision at the highest level.”
In February 1995, the Clerides government’s Council of Ministers decided the new museum would rise on the site of the Nicosia General Hospital, which was expected to be vacated within five years, by 2000. Then, in 1998, a proposal by the Minister of Finance directed that 15% of the national lottery’s proceeds go to the Museum Fund. Construction was supposed to start sometime between 1999 and 2003. In 2001, it was announced that the architectural program would be ready by 2002. In 2003, Parliament’s Finance Committee heard that work would begin in 2005 at a cost of around £40 million. And in 2005, the Director of the Department of Antiquities declared in an interview, “The New Cyprus Museum is so urgent, it should have been built yesterday.” By 2007, the project had reached the stage of an international architectural competition.
Then came the familiar cycle, funds “redirected,” tenders, committees, waiting, promises. Another decade passed, and in 2017 Theoni Xanthi’s architectural firm finally won the design competition. In February 2020, the Council of Ministers “authorized the relevant ministers to issue strict instructions for full compliance with the timelines” laid out in the Minister of Transport’s memo concerning the museum’s construction.
Three years later, in January 2023, the foundation stone was laid by the former president. At that point, the cost had climbed to €144 million, and completion was expected within 42 months, by June 2026.
But after recent developments, the project will need another 500 days. If it was meant to finish in June 2026, we’re now talking about autumn 2027. That makes ten years since the international competition was awarded, and twenty since the process for that competition began. In other words, thirty-four years since the issue was seriously revived.
Let’s hope that after what President Christodoulides saw in Cairo, he felt a touch of envy. Deputy Minister Kassianidou is certainly engaged and, I believe, eager to see the museum completed. Perhaps he’ll apply some pressure, President Anastasiades tried too, though he didn’t have time to see it through, and finally confirm what MP Moussiouttas said decades ago: that it really does take “a decision at the highest level.”
Still, I shudder at the thought that we might need another thirty years for a National Library, or for the Gallery of Contemporary Art (though, to be fair, the Deputy Ministry of Culture is reportedly considering using existing buildings at the State Fairgrounds, so perhaps we’ll be spared…).
