Located in the Moharam Bek district of Alexandria, Egypt, the Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts houses an assortment of Egyptian and Middle Eastern fine art.
In addition to Egyptian artworks, the museum features a selection of Baroque, Romantic, Rococo, and Orientalism-influenced pieces.
Significantly, the museum also showcases carvings, paintings, and sculptures created by European and Egyptian artisans.
Exhibitions, art seminars, and museum education for children all contribute to the museum’s mission of advancing art throughout Egyptian society and the local community.
In addition, renowned Egyptian artists’ exhibitions and international cultural exchange activities are coordinated by the museum.
In 1904, Alexandria Municipal Authorities acquired a collection of paintings from Edward Farid Heim as a gift, which led to the establishment of the museum.
A grand total of 210 works by international artists comprised the collection. Heim insisted that a structure be constructed specifically for the exhibition of these artworks; had this not been the case, he would have returned them to his native Germany.
A villa situated in the Moharram Bek district of Alexandria was bestowed with a library and a gallery for the exhibition of artworks by the French merchant Baron de Menasha in 1936.
Nevertheless, the structure was completely devastated in the course of World War II, forcing the municipality to temporarily relocate the artworks until a replacement museum could be constructed.
Hussein Sobhy, the general manager of Alexandria’s municipality, commissioned Egyptian architect Foad Abd Elmageed to design the Museum of Fine Arts in 1952.
The modernistic-styled structure housed a number of exhibition areas, a library, and a cultural center where seminars, film presentations, and concerts were held.
The museum was inaugurated on July 2, 1954, which occurred concurrently with the second July Revolution commemoration, as decreed by the Revolutionary Command Council.
The inaugural session of the Mediterranean Countries Biennale was inaugurated by Egyptian President Gamal Abd El-Nasser on July 26, 1955. Hussein Sobhy, the general manager of the Alexandria municipality, established the organization. Since its inception, this biennale, which is the second-oldest of its kind globally, has been hosted at the museum.
Renovations that included the addition of a workshop and artists’ hosting building, a Calligraphy Museum, a posterior garden, and a hall for transient art exhibitions bearing the name of the Alexandrian artist Hamed Ewes resulted in the museum’s reopening in January 2013.