On the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem

CURATORIAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Jerusalem’s ‘cursed’ antiquity museum reopens its doors amid rumors it may become a hotel. The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum stores some 60,000 artifacts spanning millennia, including unique decorations from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Meanwhile, although the interministerial committee still has to formulate its recommendation regarding the future of the Rockefeller, the IAA told The Times of Israel that it has requested to be reassigned the responsibility for the facility.

“For the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Rockefeller Museum is the historic and symbolic home of the archaeology of the Land of Israel,” read a statement shared by an IAA spokesperson.

“The Authority has formally requested that the museum’s operation be returned to its hands, in order to promote its reopening,” the statement added, pledging that the IAA “will do everything possible to ensure that the Rockefeller Museum once again becomes a living museum, full of content, as it deserves to be.”

The title of the article is unfortunate, if attention grabbing. But it gives a good overview of the history of the museum, some of its key holdings, and the issues around its coming fate.

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