People like to hide their most valuable treasures so that they are not so easy to find. The treasurers of the Free State of Bavaria, for example, have stashed their archaeological finds on the edge of the English Garden, in a small side street behind the National Museum, camouflaged in a complex of boxes whose red-brown facade gives the impression that everything has rusted. “That’s how it should be,” assured Markus Blume, Bavaria’s Minister for Science and Art, when he reopened the treasure chest on Monday afternoon in a ceremony together with Prime Minister Markus Söder, his party colleague from the CSU.
The State Archaeological Collection on Lerchenfeldstrasse was closed for renovation work for eight years. On Wednesday it will now reopen to the interested public and entry is free for everyone until Sunday. After that, adults have to pay seven euros, children and young people under 18 are still allowed in for free. Above all, they should be particularly appealed to by the “top-modern presentation,” as Prime Minister Söder once raved: “Everything is in new building quality.”
Allusions to the archeological adventurer Indiana Jones should not be missing. Art Minister Markus Blume (left) brought two hats in the style of the adventurer to the opening, which he and Prime Minister Markus Söder of course promptly put on.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
This also includes the facade made of Corten steel, a weatherproof structural steel, the alloy of which is intended to protect the surface from further corrosion and gives the whole thing a certain patina. This steel was already used in the old building, which was inaugurated in 1976, and was spruced up again as part of the general renovation, which cost 66 million euros; The building now shines “in its old, new splendor,” as Blume put it in his welcoming speech.
The museum has been extensively renovated since 2016, costing 66 million euros. The house can be visited again from Wednesday.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The external shine is quite dull, but the State Archaeological Collection’s true shine is mostly on the inside anyway. Collection director Rupert Gebhard promises future visitors that the exhibition will “touch them emotionally”: “This is not an intellectual construction.” The young audience in particular is to be addressed through graphic novels by the Munich comic artist Frank Schmolke, and from July onwards there will be an installation of augmented reality, i.e. the possibility of an expanded perception of reality with the help of computers.
Of course, you can already use digital forms of communication. The cabaret artist Luise Kinseher (“Mama Bavaria”) recorded recordings for an audio tour, and you can use a QR code to guide you through the rooms on your smartphone – a valuable help in view of the around 15,000 exhibits on display, which only one Represent a fraction of the collection. Around 20 million objects are stored in the depots, the entire spectrum includes a hand ax from the last 100,000 years BC to a piece of crockery that was buried in Munich at the end of the Second World War and unearthed again in 2012.
More than 15,000 objects will be presented in the new premises.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
In his welcoming speech, Prime Minister Söder pointed out how the image of archeology has changed over the past three or four decades. “It used to be like this: you dig and dig. Today it’s modern detectives,” he said, drawing on perhaps the most famous modern archaeologist, the film character Indiana Jones, portrayed by actor Harrison Ford, for a comparison. “It’s no longer like Indiana Jones, it’s CSI: History.”
Accordingly, the museum is not designed as a series of finds; rather, historical connections and social developments over the course of thousands of years are intended to be worked out and made clear. Söder confessed that history had “always interested, fascinated, and excited him” and that he was still interested in studying archeology after his political career. He is sure that the newly designed museum will “inspire and delight enormously.”
In general, archaeology, the science of antiquity and the development of humanity, was highly praised on this day and praised as an exciting thing. “We are time travelers,” said collection director Gebhard in his opening speech. Minister Blume described the state collection as a place “where you can start an expedition.” Given the many discoveries that can be made there, “you gain a deep awareness of what has already moved this country.”
If you have a cell phone with you, you can use QR codes to access in-depth information, audio or films.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
In view of the full hall at the ceremony, Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin and a native of Munich, stated: “This is the right signal for archeology.” Bavaria needs a house like the state collection; Munich has long been a “place of top prehistoric research.”
Markus Blume then added that the completely renovated state collection perfectly complements the Munich lifestyle, with its proximity to the Eisbachwelle and the English Garden and “from now on also with a roof terrace of the very best”. The bar there can be visited regardless of the museum’s opening hours, says Blume: “That’s an important message for all Aperol fans.”