MAHMOUD KHALIL MUSEUM
Museum housing a collection of Chinese, Turkish and Persian vases from the Khalil family, as well as Orientalist works.
A former minister and president of the Maglis el-Choura (Senate), who died in 1953, Mahmoud Khalil had met his wife Emilienne Hector in France, where he was studying. Over the years, the couple acquired an impressive collection of art objects, especially works by European artists: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, Corot, Courbet, Renoir, Delacroix, Rodin... When Khalil died in 1960, his wife donated the collection to the Egyptian state, on the condition that the museum would bear their name. Moved to Zamalek during the time of President El-Sadate, the collection only returned to the couple's home in 1995. In the meantime, some of the works have been exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay, under the title "The Forgotten of Cairo". This is probably the most beautiful art museum in the city, with some 300 paintings and sculptures from the 19th century in Europe on three floors. One passes without transition from the setting sun of the Meuse by Jongkind, to the Nile so luminous through the windows! The most striking work in the museum remains Gauguin's Life and Death, a masterly interpretation that one never tires of contemplating. It is a small Orsay on a human scale: not to be missed! It is here that Van Gogh's painting Poppy Flowers was stolen (for thesecond time!) in broad daylight during the summer of 2010, a painting that has not yet been found. The museum also houses the impressive collection of Chinese, Turkish and Persian vases of the Khalil family as well as Orientalist works including a magnificent Nile by Eugene Fromentin.
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