Khalil Museum, Cairo

The Khalil Museum houses the collection of art and objects of Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Egyptian politician and his wife Emiline Lock. It consists of many valuable paintings and rivals many private European art collections.

The Mohamed Khalil palace that houses the Museum was built in 1920 in Giza, Cairo. It has an art deco style of architecture. The eastern part of the palace that overlooks the River Nile has an art nouveau style and includes a metal and glass skeleton above the main entrance. The building covers an area of 1400 square meters and has four floors. It became a museum in 1962. The collection was temporarily moved to another palace in the Zamaleck area of Cairo and returned once the Khalil palace was extensively renovated in 1971.

The Khalil Museum has a valuable collection of European painting by great masters including Paul Gaugin, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Vincent Van Gogh. The paintings, ‘Sun Flower’ by Vincent van Gogh and ‘Life and Death’ by Paul Gaugin are placed in individual rooms for visitors to marvel in private. There is also an impressive collection of vases from France, China, Japan, Iran and Egypt and a vast collection of Chinese miniature figures.