The mandate of the president of the Egyptian Museum of Turin Evelina Christillin, in office since 2012, will expire in November, and there is already a question about the new appointment: the Ministry of Culture, which must indicate a name, seems to be thinking of replacing Christillin, while the founding members of the museum, who are responsible for the subsequent formal nomination, have asked the ministry in a letter to renew Christillin for another year, in order to maintain continuity with the work for the museum’s bicentenary, which occurs at the end of this year. year and the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will also be present at the ceremony.
The Egyptian Museum of Turin is one of the most famous Italian museums and the most important Egyptian museum in the world after that of Cairo, and has often been at the center of political controversy: both because it is a museum of particular importance and because the current director Christian Greco, a world-renowned Egyptologist who has contributed to the museum’s prestige and recent successes, has faced many attacks in recent years from the right-wing parties that make up the current government.
At this moment, the direction of Greco, who has been in office since 2014, is not under discussion, but the position of president. They are two different and complementary roles: while the director has a primarily scientific and cultural role, Christillin is a well-known company manager, who among other things deals with the economic and strategic management of the museum, for which skills and well-established relationships are needed for raising private funds. So far, the division of tasks between Greco and Christillin has brought results considered excellent both from the point of view of the cultural proposal and that of the economic sustainability of the museum.
The print last week he wrote that the Ministry of Culture would like to change the management and not renew Christillin, replacing her with Zahi Hawass, a well-known Egyptian scholar wanted by the Minister of Culture Giuseppe Sangiuliano. Hawass is an archaeologist and Egyptologist, he was Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and is a convinced promoter of the return of archaeological finds to their countries of origin. For this reason he does not enjoy close relationships with the directors of the most important international museums: in the past he has been denied loan requests for the Great Egyptian Museum in Giza by the largest European museums, including the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum of London (the Egyptian Museum currently has no ongoing restitution proceedings, its collection comes largely from purchases by the Savoy family).
Hawass told the news agency Handle who at the moment has not received any proposal from the Ministry of Culture, but would accept it if it arrived.
The ministry, among the founding members of the Museum, can only indicate one person, who must then be confirmed and formally nominated by the entire board of founding members, also composed of the Piedmont Region, the Province and the City of Turin, the Compagnia di San Paolo and the CRT Foundation. The representatives of the other members expressed their doubts about the possible replacement of Christillin in a letter to the ministry, of which The print reported a summary: according to the signatories – including the president of the Piedmont Region Alberto Cirio, of Forza Italia, and the mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, of the Democratic Party – it would be appropriate to extend Christillin’s mandate for another year, so that can manage all the works relating to the bicentenary of the Museum, for which renovation and renovation works have been planned which will last until 2025.
This would also make it possible to remedy a misalignment due to the pandemic, which had delayed the installation of the new board of directors while the president was already in office: Christillin’s mandate expires this year, while the board of directors, which she chairs , expires in 2025.
The letter is not binding, but within it there is reference to the fact that it is up to the board of founders to confirm the person indicated by the ministry, which is therefore not a given. Furthermore, the possible indication of Hawass has already received criticism in the scientific and cultural community: being a scholar he would overlap with Greco, and with him as president Christillin’s management skills, complementary to the direction, would be lost.
Precisely for this reason in some newspapers there has been talk of the fact that the ministry’s move could be part of a broader plan to change the entire management of the Egyptian Museum, including Greco: although the appointment of the director is the exclusive responsibility of the board of administration, this is guided precisely by the president, who has a weight in the final choice. It is therefore possible that with Hawass as president it would be easier not to confirm Greco, or that he even spontaneously decides to leave: his mandate expires next year and he has never been liked by the right currently in government.
Among other things, Greco had attracted criticism from the right for an initiative of the Egyptian Museum carried out between 2017 and 2018, called “Lucky Arabic speakers”: it consisted of a ticket discount for Arabic-speaking people who visited the museum. Brothers of Italy and in particular Giorgia Meloni, in a very excited period for the electoral campaign of the 2018 political elections, accused Greco of practicing “reverse racism” and of penalizing Italians. Then last September, when the current government led by Meloni had already been in office for almost a year, the controversies against Greco revived and the deputy secretary of the League Andrea Crippa, in an interview with Italian Affairsaccused Greco of being «ideological and racist against Italians and citizens of the Christian religion», going on to say: «We will do everything to expel him and we ask the Minister of Culture Sangiuliano to expel him if he doesn’t resign».
The main members of the government did not take positions, neither Meloni nor the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano. The then undersecretary for Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, reiterated that the 2018 initiative for Arabic-speaking people “had no ideological meaning, it just wanted to increase visitors”, adding then that Greco’s merits “cannot be ignored ».
