El despertar de la “Bella Durmiente”: pasado, presente y futuro de la Sala Egipcia del Museo Provincial Emilio Bacardí Moreau, Santiago de Cuba

Abstract

The Egyptian collection of the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Provincial Museum, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, comprises a variety of objects brought from Egypt in 1912 by its founder, Emilio Bacardí Moreau. The only Egyptian human mummy in Cuba is exhibited next to the lid of an anthropomorphic coffin and the wooden base of another coffin. Additionally, many small objects like shabti figures, scarabs, a stela, coffin fragments and amulets are present. As Bacardí was not an Egyptologist, he also acquired quite a lot of counterfeits; besides, many of the exhibited objects are not properly labelled regarding their dating, context and function. Furthermore, the display lacks an adequate conservation system and a correct museography based on current international standards, concerning the exhibition of human remains. As part of the Cuban Mummy Project—a collaboration between the National Council of Cultural Heritage of Cuba (CNPC) and the Institute of Scientific Studies on Mummies of Madrid (IECIM)—and in cooperation with the Heidelberg Centre for Cultural Heritage (HCCH) of the University of Heidelberg (Germany), the correct cataloguing of all Egyptian artefacts is being undertaken, together with their appropriate display in a new exhibition layout.