Art, artifacts back on display for Israel Museum reopening

12/8/2020 13:02

        The Israel Museum on Tuesday pulled the priceless Dead Sea Scrolls out of a heavily fortified vault ahead of its reopening to the public following a five-month shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.
        
        The museum, Israel's largest cultural institution, closed down in March as the country entered lockdown. But budgetary problems left the Jerusalem museum shuttered after Israel began easing restrictions on public spaces in May.
        
        Most of the museum's 500 employees have returned from months of furlough ahead of Thursday’s reopening, which will also see the return of other treasured artworks and artifacts. Throughout the empty galleries, curators and cleaners dusted off works, removed protective coverings and returned masterpieces from storage.
        
        The Dead Sea Scrolls — fragile, two millennia-old parchments that include the oldest existing copies of Biblical texts — came out of "deep sleep" in the museum's climate-controlled vaults to return to display, Shrine of the Book curator Hagit Maoz said.
        
        The delicate scrolls require low light and humidity for their long-term preservation.