As Bode Museum re-opens, Berlin culture official presses for speed

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Berlin (dpa) - The head of Germany's richest art collections called on Tuesday, the inauguration day for the refurbished Bode Museum in Berlin, for faster rebuilding of the city's Island of Museums.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, who heads the Prussian Culture Commission, said he hoped the government would rush the construction of an underground entrance hall to the island's five museums, which house some of the world's great art including the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

Under current planning it may be another decade before the entrance, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, crowns the redevelopment programme. The Bode Museum is to re-open to the public this Thursday after eight years of closure and rebuilding.

Speaking just before inauguration celebrations with German leaders, Lehmann said the relaunch of the Bode, which exhibits a millenium and a half of sculpture from the Christian world, had helped restore the island's "beauty, grandness and quality."

Germany is spending 1.2 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) to refurbish the five museums, which occupy an island in the Spree river in the heart of Berlin. The Prussian Commission administers the museums, which formerly belonged to the German kaisers.

The new Bode has recovered the lightness it had when it was first opened in 1904 and there was space around the artworks. Director of museums Peter-Klaus Schuster said the Bode later became jam-packed, but its sculptures from now on would have "room to breathe."

The Bode is the second of the island's museums to get a new lease of life. Its art ranges from Coptic and Byzantine carving to a collection of 16th to 18th century Italian sculpture.

Founder Wilhelm von Bode conceived its "period rooms," where art is shown with interior decoration from the same era.

Internet: http://www.smb.museum/http://www.museumsinsel-berlin.de/