bavarikon4UArt and culture of ancient Egypt
The origins of the State Museum of Egyptian Art date back to the second half of the 16th century, when Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria (1550-1579) acquired the first aegyptiaca in Rome for his art chamber. No more Egyptian objects seem to have been acquired for Munich in the following two and a half centuries. This only changed at the beginning of the 19th century.
Already when Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria (1825-1848) had begun to purchase Egyptian and Egyptian-inspired objects, which he wanted to place in the "Egyptian Hall" of his planned Glyptothek "as the main foundation on which Greek sculpture rests". As a result, the current concept of the Egyptian Museum as an art museum is based on Ludwig I's acquisition philosophy.
Independently of this, the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences also pressed for the purchase of Egyptian monuments under its Secretary General Friedrich von Schlichtegroll (1765-1822). However, its interest was less in art than in inscribed monuments such as coffins and steles. Its acquisitions were placed in a separate room on the ground floor of the academy building on Neuhauser Straße: some decorated coffins of the Third Intermediate and smaller aegyptiaca from the Sieber Collection were purchased in 1820. In 1825, the Captain Ferdinand Michel collection was also acquired, consisting of 17 steles.
In addition to the Egyptian monuments exhibited in the Antiquarium and Glyptothek though, there were other Egyptian objects intended for the "Egyptian Hall" in the "United Collections of King Ludwig I", which opened in the gallery building in the Hofgarten in 1844.
With the death of Ludwig I, the period of important acquisitions came to an end for the time being, and the following four decades only saw small finds such as ostraca and papyri as new acquisitions. This only changed again at the beginning of the 20th century with the involvement of private patrons and sponsors.
Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing (1873-1956) is of outstanding importance here. As an archaeologist, he not only financed his own excavations in Egypt but also financially supported the undertakings of other Egyptologists. According to the regulations of the administration of antiquities at that time, he was therefore entitled to a part of the finds. During his lifetime von Bissing made generous donations to the "Egyptian Hall" in the Glyptothek, including numerous reliefs and hundreds of ceramic vessels and small finds.
It was not until 1935 that the Egyptian Collection was separated from the "United Collections" and placed in the Residenz as the "Egyptian State Collection" until the Second World War. In the 1960s, all the Egyptian monuments owned by the Free State of Bavaria were united in the "State Collection of Egyptian Art", which was renamed "State Museum of Egyptian Art" in 2000.
After an initial presentation in 1966 in the "Haus der Kulturinstitute" at 10 Katharina-von-Bora-Straße, the museum was opened in 1970/72 in the Hofgartentrakt of the Munich Residence. Considerations for a new building had been underway since the late 1970s but did not take shape until 2003 when the go-ahead was given for the planning and construction of the new building for the museum on Gabelsbergerstrasse, which was opened in June 2013 in the centre of Munich's Kunstareal.
>> The collection is part of the holdings of the Staatliche Museum Ägyptischer Kunst (State Museum of Egyptian Art).