Oversight of the GEM
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi just issued a resolution that creates a Board of Trustees of the Grand Egyptian Museum Authority. He will head the board which which will include some noted foreign and senior Egyptian members. The appearance of Zahi Hawass in the list, really surprised me. At one time he was Minister of Tourism and Antiquities before falling out of favor with a previous president and he still has his detractors. Many of you have seen him on TV shows wearing his familiar blue work shirt and Indiana Jones style hat.
Foreign members of the Board include Japanese politician Tarō Asō, Director of Kyoto National Museum Johei Sasaki, Chairman of the Saudi Space Agency (SSA) Prince Sultan bin Salman, Max Hollein the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Zurab Pololikashvilithe secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization. Egyptian members include Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled el-Enani, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem, Minister of Finance Mohammed Mait, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Mostafa el-Feki, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, Farouk Hosni, Hisham Okasha, Farouk El-Oqdah, Mohamed Lotfi Mansour and famed TV host Sherif Amer.
A real reach for news of the GEM? Yup, nothing else new to report. 