The Libyan capital, Tripoli, is preparing to reopen the National Museum on April 2nd, following a full maintenance and development process that included updating all its facilities and reorganizing its historical exhibits. The museum houses 47 halls narrating various periods of Libya’s history, displaying thousands of artifacts that reflect the diversity of civilizations that succeeded each other.
In its new form, the museum will contain a special wing dedicated to King Idris Al-Senussi and the Senussi family, aiming to introduce the era of the Libyan Kingdom and the country’s independence.
The National Museum, formerly known as As-saraya Al-hamra )the Red Castle), is one of the oldest and largest museums in Libya, located within the historic Tripoli Citadel. The museum consists of four main levels, displaying Libya’s heritage across the ages, starting from the ancient Libyan tribal civilizations, passing through the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines, and reaching the Arab and Islamic eras.
The museum’s history dates back to 1919, when Italians, after invading Libya in 1911, converted an ammunition depot next to the citadel into the first museum in Tripoli. In the 1920s, Italy removed this building and all the citadel’s attachments, and in 1930, it was entirely converted into the Classical Museum during the reign of Italian Governor Italo Balbo.
In 1948, the museum’s name was changed to ” the Libyan Museum,” where it continued to document the historical stages that the country went through, until it later evolved into As-saraya Al-hamra Museum.
The museum houses a wide collection of artifacts that embody Libya’s multicultural history, from ancient antiquities, to statues and mosaics transferred from various sites across the country.
In a qualitative addition to the National Museum in its new form, a collection of stolen Libyan artifacts that were recently recovered will be displayed for the first time.
The recovered artifacts include a number of rare items looted from Cyrene, which were smuggled out of the country before legal efforts succeeded in recovering them. Among the most prominent pieces to be displayed:
- The head of a veiled female statue, part of a private collection looted illegally. which has been kept in an international museum since 1998.
- Another collection of archaeological and artistic pieces, was confiscated and returned to Libya.
These pieces entered Europe illegally through antiquities smuggling networks.
The reopening of the National Museum is expected to be a prominent cultural milestone in Libya, preserving national identity, reviving historical memory, and attracting visitors and tourists from inside and outside the country.
