STORY: The Sursock Museum’s white facade and beautifully stained-glass windows invite visitors to one of Lebanon’s few museums of modern and contemporary art.
But to see the collection – at least today – you need special access to the basement.
This is where the Beirut museum sealed its artwork as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah spiked over the summer.
“So this is the underground, this is where we’re keeping all the artworks…”
Staff had grown fearful the collection could be damaged or destroyed.
Mohamed Choucair is the communications officer for the Sursock Museum.
“We decided to take down the collection a little bit over a month and a half ago. That’s when the pagers incident happened. The security concerns were getting a little bit too overwhelming with the sonic booms and risk of bombardment elsewhere. So we took down the collection to the basement where they’re kept safely because of safety concerns.”
Originally home to more than 1,600 works of art, upstairs, the war-shuttered hallways are unlit and the walls are bare.
It’s a darkened and empty display that, in its own way, offers a different picture of the current war.
“Well, to see this museum closed, it’s heartbreaking, definitely. We come to work every day, but we’re met with empty walls. However, there’s a palpable energy between staff members today. We’re hopeful to reopen as soon as possible.”
Opened in 1961, Sursock has weathered multiple crises, including Lebanon’s civil war from 1975 to 1990 and two subsequent closures in the 2000s.
The museum’s basement storage, built during a previous renovation, now has the capacity to house the entire collection to protect it from the threat of bombings.
“So as you can see this is the larger collection that was not on display. We didn’t take them down recently. And, it’s funny, because we got more donations during the wartime, to safeguard some artworks. Some people donated some.”
::Israeli Army
The Israeli military and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war, but hostilities have escalated over the last six weeks.
:: Jiyyeh, Lebanon
More than 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them since late September, according to health authorities.
Choucair says staff are using the time to care for themselves and to plan a new exhibit once the conflict ends.
