Private museums enhance cultural vision, community awareness in Qatar

Doha: Qatar is rich with a number of private museums that enhance the country’s cultural vision, so that collectors join the museums’ honour roll in order to contribute to preserving this legacy for successive generations.

Qatar News Agency  sheds light on the importance, strength and presence of private museums in the country’s cultural scene, as well as the experiences and contribution these museums make on the occasion of the International Museum Day, which falls on May 18 every year.

Among the most prominent private museums is  Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, located in Al Sheehaniya area. With its precious treasures, the museum narrates chapters of the history of the Qatar, passing through areas, civilisations and ancient times. It occupies an area of about 50,000sqm and includes over 50,000 rare pieces from four different continents.

Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum, which is one of the most famous private museums for Islamic art and antiques in the Middle East, said that he inherited his interest in collecting art pieces and the preservation of the heritage from his father Sheikh Qassim bin Faisal. His father  took him to visit many museums and archaeological sites in the Arab Gulf region and Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece. 

The museum includes coins from Croesus era, and from countries that are hundreds of years old and those which no longer exist, in the coins section which has about 4,000 pieces. 
Al Thani stressed that this hobby is very expensive and needs great care.