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The campaign centred around a monumental Mamluk porch dating back to the 15th century and an 18th-century mashrabiyya – a delicate openwork panel surmounted with stained glass. Though they were spectacular both in dimension and in quality, they had not been restored and displayed until the campaign. These precious architectural testaments to the lavishness of Cairo residences were preserved from the city’s mass urbanisation works in the 19th century. Each went on a unique historical and scientific journey. The porch was disassembled and transported by boat from Port Said to Le Havre, then sent on to Paris in order to reconstitute a ‘Cairo street’ for the 1889 Paris Exposition. It was never actually reconstructed, and remained hidden away in storage until recently. Acquired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in view of creating a ‘Moorish’ smoking room in his Parisian town home, the mashrabiyya was ultimately put to no such use and was gifted to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1920. The conservation treatment, reassembling and installation of both of these exceptional pieces represented as many technical challenges, demanding a number of meticulous studies, analyses and operations over the course of several years.

Some 2,000 donors helped fund the conservation treatment of these treasures, allowing them to be installed in time for the inauguration of the Department of Islamic Arts in October 2012. The Louvre extends its warmest thanks to the generous donors who made it possible to carry out the conservation treatment on the two treasures of Cairo.