beirut lebanons sursock museum has reopened to the public three years after a deadly explosion in beiruts port set off by tons of improperly stored chemicals reduced many of its treasured paintings and collections to ashes the reopening friday night offered beirut residents a rare bright spot in a country reeling from a crippling economic crisis that has left around threequarters of lebanons population of 6 million in poverty originally built as a private villa in 1912 on a hilltop overlooking the citys achrafieh neighbourhood the opulent residence integrated venetian and ottoman styles its owner famed lebanese art collector nicolas ibrahim sursock bequeathed his beloved home to his people to be tuned into a contemporary art museum upon his death in 1952 the museum housed lebanese art dating back from the late 1800s including the work of distinguished painter georges corm and fouad debbas library of 30000 photographs one of the largest private photo collections the photos are from across the levant a region encompassing countries along the eastern mediterranean from turkey to egypt from 1830 until the 1960s in 2008 a sevenyear project renovated and expanded the museum relaunching it in 2015 but the august 4 2020 blast in beiruts port only about 800 metres 875 yards away hit the museum fully front on its stained glass windows were shattered doors were blown out and almost half the artwork on display was damaged the explosion ripped through much of beirut killing more than 200 people and injuring over 6000 the destruction was unprecedented said museum director karina el helou a level unseen even during lebanons 19751990 civil war seventy percent of the building was badly damaged as were 66 of the 132 art pieces on display she said glass shards tore through dutch artist kees von dongens portrait of nicolas sursock two months after the explosion thenmuseum director zeina arida launched a fundraising campaign estimating the damages to be around usd 3 million at the time the museum eventually raised over usd 2 million to restore the building and the artwork with support from italy france unesco and various private organisations the restoration was long and painstaking work sursocks portrait was taken to paris along with two other art pieces and restored there experts from lebanon and abroad flocked to the museum to piece together damaged terracotta sculptures and fix tears and scratches that had marred the paintings dust and debris from the explosion were carefully removed to bring back the splendour of many items white powder from the blast that we saw everywhere in beirut even reached our storage room four stories underground el helou said she hopes the reopening will boost the morale of many lebanese amid the countrys economic meltdown and offer a safe space for free expression art is now more important than ever she added in the face of darkness artists fought through art and culture she said dozens gathered in sursocks large treelined courtyard on friday evening