Campagne en faveur de la restauration du mastaba `d Akhethètep

de la Sociètè des Amis du Louvre

A TREASURE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES

After the successful campaign for the conservation treatment of the Winged Victory of Samothrace,

the Louvre embarks upon a new project involving an exceptional work.

As a result of in-depth research and archaeological excavations on the prestigious Egyptian site of Saqqara,

the museum is now in a position to restore and reconstruct one of the treasures from its collection

of Egyptian Antiquities: the mastaba of Akhethotep chapel.

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The Louvre now hopes to propose a new presentation of the chapel in the heart of its collections,

so as to display to the public one of the finest monuments dating from the Old Egyptian Kingdom.

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In the age of the pyramids, only high-ranking dignitaries were privileged enough to rest inside a monumental tomb,

known as a ‘mastaba’.

Akhethotep, an important figure in the Old Kingdom and close to the pharaoh,

was one such person. Transported to the Louvre in 1903,

his 4,000-year-old tomb chapel is one of the highlights of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities,

prized for both the virtuosity of the decorative carvings and the profusion and vitality of its motifs:

hriving nature, agricultural scenes, banquets, dances, processions…

One century later, beneath the sand, the Louvre discovered the original site of

the chapel and the remarkable architectural complex to which it belonged.

On the strength of these discoveries, the Louvre now hopes to propose a new presentation

of the chapel in the heart of its collections, so as to display to the public one of the finest monuments dating from the

Old Egyptian Kingdom.

Le Louvre thanks all its donors for their invaluable support!

copyright / Louvre Paris

Thanks for this too

                                                                                                                     1984©Gabrill