Cultural Protection Fund projects | Sudan

£998,769 awarded to the British Museum to create a new database of Egyptian and Nubian artefacts currently in circulation on the international art market, and those held in private collections, to counteract looting and illegal trafficking. This project is delivered in partnership with The Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt; The National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM); and The Art & Antiques Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service (New Scotland Yard).

The Circulating Artefacts (CircArt) online project launched in March 2018 and currently focuses on antiquities from Egypt and Sudan. Thus far, the project has documented and researched nearly 47,000 objects in circulation on the market, producing strong evidence to suggest that more than 10% were excavated illegally. The project has enabled the recovery of artefacts looted from dozens of sites across Egypt and Sudan. 

10-month project for 2020-21 

Following the Impact round of funding, an additional £689,282 has been awarded to expand the project's outreach and skills sharing. It also allows the existing CircArt platform to extend its research to the sale of illicit artefacts on social media.

£997,000 awarded to ICCROM-ATHAR (Architectural and Archaeological Tangible Heritage in the Arab Region) to restore three museums and provide for the educational and cultural needs of their communities, visitors and tourists. This project is delivered in partnership with the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM); The Centre for Heritage Studies, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge; and Mallinson Architects and Engineers.

The Khalifa House in Khartoum, the Sheikan Museum in El Obeid and the Darfur Museum in Nyala lie on a traditional trade route out of Western Sudan, to the capital Khartoum. Each museum hosts collections speaking to the community and history of the local area, as well as being nationally and internationally important.

Over 20,000 artefacts across the three museums have now been recorded, condition assessed, cleaned and either stored or redisplayed. The Sheikan Museum has a new community hall, entrance building and heritage and community exhibitions. The Darfur Museum has been reopened, and repairs, improvements, and new exhibitions are now in progress. Finally, the Khalifa House and Bramble House have been rescued, repaired and restored as a significant cultural heritage complex.

£817,221 awarded to King's College London (KCL) to conserve and digitise a range of written and photographic material held in archives in Sudan. This project is delivered in partnership with University of Liverpool (Centre for Archive Studies); Sudanese Association for Archiving Knowledge (SUDAAK), National Record Office of Sudan, Africa City of Technology.

This three-year project has trained 70 staff in scanning, metadata and workflow management, alongside capturing 90,000 high-quality images, plus 1000 films from the Sudan Film Archive.

10-month project for 2020-21 

Following the Impact round of funding, an additional £383,587 has been awarded to KCL to build on its scanning and documenting activities throughout Sudan with the aim to engage more organisations, institutions and private collections. The project aims to expand to more remote areas in Sudan via engagement events and to train new participants in remote scanning techniques.

£76,749 awarded to DAL Charity to focus on the protection and preservation of traditional food and associated recipes in Sudan, with research and documentation taking place across the country.