The director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez, is forging closer links with cultural organisations in Egypt after signing a co-operation agreement last week (15 May) with Khaled El-Enany, the Egyptian minister of antiquities.
The French museum is due to enter into a partnership with the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, which remains closed after a suicide car bomb badly damaged the 19th-century building in early 2014. A ministry spokesman says that a date for the re-opening is yet to be confirmed.
Under the agreement, both museums will mount joint exhibitions, share expertise on conservation developments and oversee a staff training programme. For instance, three curators from the Cairo museum will spend six weeks at the Louvre from mid May, working with Islamic department curators in areas such as archiving and collection care.
The Egyptian curatorial team based in Paris will also help organise a collaborative show focusing on the history of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and its links with the Louvre, which is due to launch at the Cairo museum in 2017. The exhibition will go on show at the Louvre at a later date.
