Pergamonmuseum Refurbishment on Schedule: Clearance of the South Wing Will Be Completed in Autumn 2024

24.05.2024
Pergamonmuseum

Construction work at the Pergamonmuseum is on schedule for comprehensive refurbishment work in the South Wing to begin in late 2024. To this end, the teams responsible for the Pergamonmuseum collections are currently working intensively to clear that space.

In addition to museums’ specialists, conservators and collection administrators working on the project, the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) has commissioned numerous restoration planners, freelance restorers, transportation and art shipment companies, scaffolding suppliers and firms specialised in protecting the artefacts on site and during transport.

Three Collections Affected

Three collections are affected by these measures. The Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities) presented its objects in the Miletus Hall. Adjoining it on the main floor are the exhibition spaces of the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East). Located above that space was the Museum für Islamische Kunst’s (Museum for Islamic Art) permanent exhibition, which will be displayed on both floors beginning in 2027. The museum’s Pergamon Hall and Hellenistic Hall will also reopen in 2027.

This means that more than half of the Pergamonmuseum will once again be accessible to visitors in three years. The Vorderasiatisches Museum will be represented by a room serving as a showcase when the North Wing reopens, and the museum is also planning an interim exhibition. However, its collection will not be fully displayed again until the South Wing reopens in 2037.

Clearance of the South Wing for Construction Measures Is Well-Advanced

In the months since the South Wing closed in autumn 2023, all display cases and freestanding objects have been removed. Most of the permanently installed exhibits have now been dismantled, for example, the Aleppo Room and the Mshatta Façade, as well as numerous stone artefacts from the Vorderasiatisches Museum weighing several tonnes, including the lion statues and the Assyrian palace reliefs.

In addition to some 2,000 objects displayed in the Vorderasiatisches Museum and Antikensammlung, a large proportion of the Museum für Islamische Kunst’s 90,000 objects are also being removed from the museum’s exhibition spaces and storage facilities and transferred to new or interim locations. The architectural elements being restored on site will be moved directly into the North Wing in the coming year.

Miletus Hall with the Market Gate of Miletus

The Orpheus mosaic (2nd century AD) was recently removed from Miletus Hall along with the Antikensammlung artefacts. Currently, the Trajan statue and two others from the Market Gate of Miletus, along with other items, are being lifted from their pedestals with cranes and moved to storage. Only extremely large installations, some of which are deeply embedded in the museum walls, will remain in the building, among them the Market Gate. These will be enclosed for their protection and closely monitored.

Monuments: The Processional Way and Ishtar Gate

The two permanently installed and largest monuments – the Processional Way and Ishtar Gate of Babylon – will also remain in the Vorderasiatisches Museum during construction. All other objects will be removed to storage and restored, or, in some cases, loaned out or presented in temporary exhibitions in Berlin. The collection’s stone artefacts removed from the adjacent spaces are presently being arranged by weight along the Processional Way and, in the coming weeks, will be moved out of the building through a window by crane. Other objects are being dismantled stone by stone, for example, the Façade of the Inanna Temple of Karaindaš from Uruk (Warka) dating from the 15th century BC.

Preparations for Relocating the Museum für Islamische Kunst to the North Wing

After relocating from the South to the North Wing in 2027, the Museum für Islamische Kunst will occupy 3,000 square metres, more than twice as much space as previously. Hundreds of objects are being cleaned and restored for this new setting.

Among these is the famous Aleppo Room, which is being freed of its harmful, porous varnish. Its wood panelling was dismantled for the move by removing the panels, doors and cornices from the wall frames. These painted cedar frames will be transported intact through the building once the restoration work has been completed.