Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum

About Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum

Museum in Egypt

The Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum is an art museum in the Giza district on the Nile corniche near Cairo University, housed in an art nouveau palace built in the early 20th century. It was founded by Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil, a politician, businessman and collector who assembled a collection of European art of exceptional quality, mostly acquired before 1928. On his death in 1953 he left the collection to his wife on condition that she bequeath it and the palace to the Egyptian state as a museum; the palace first opened as a museum in 1962, the collection moved to the palace of Prince Amr Ibrahim in Zamalek in 1971 and reopened there in 1979, and later returned to the Giza palace. The collection is the most important group of Impressionist works in the Middle East, with paintings by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh and sculptures by Auguste Rodin, alongside ceramics and Oriental objects. The museum is also known for the 2010 theft of Van Gogh's Poppy Flowers. According to Wikivoyage the museum reopened in July 2017 after renovation but closed again in November 2018 with no announced reopening date, so check its status before visiting.

Where:

Cairo, Egypt