Demand for a new, larger Antalya Museum rejected

ANTALYA – Doğan News Agency

The Antalya Museum’s demand for the establishment of one of the world’s largest museums on an area that is currently home to the Highway Directorate’s social facilities, public housing and the Meteorology 4th Regional Directorate has been rejected. 

In 2012, the Antalya Trade and Industrial Chamber (ATSO) prepared a proposal for the expansion of the Antalya Museum in order to display thousands of artifacts in its storage. The proposal reported that Antalya and its vicinity was very rich in terms of cultural historical artifacts but that the Antalya Museum, which is home to many of these artifacts, had not been sufficiently promoted in the world. 

“When compared to other world-renowned museums, the Antalya Museum could not draw visitors enough because of the reason that it is physically insufficient,” the proposal reported, and demanded that the Highways Social Facilities and the Meteorology 4th Regional Directorate leave their current location for the establishment of a new large museum.

The proposal also said the city needed a large library at world standards. 

The proposal was delivered to the Culture and Tourism Ministry and Former Minister Ertuğrul Günay asked the Finance Ministry to allocate the area for the museum. But at the end of a four-year process for the allocation of the area, the demand was rejected by the Transportation Ministry on the grounds that the public housing, social facilities and guest houses were too important to be relocated elsewhere.