With Foreign Construction Workers Unable to Return to Work, the Opening of Berlin’s $700 Million Humboldt Forum Has Been Delayed—Again

The opening of the perpetually beleaguered Humboldt Forum
in Berlin, which was scheduled to take place in
September after a spate of delays over the past several years,
has now been postponed indefinitely due to logistical
issues caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The ambitious project, which has been mired in controversy since its inception, was
already set back just weeks ago when an accidental
fire broke out on its construction site.

Now travel restrictions have made it difficult for foreign
construction workers to return to Germany following the Easter
holiday, leaving the site in a state of partial limbo.

“Although work on the Humboldt Forum has continued over the past
weeks and months despite the coronavirus crisis, only 70 to 75
percent of the workforce was available due to travel restrictions
and quarantine rules,” a spokesperson tells Artnet News, noting
that the latest delay was unrelated to the fire in April.

The spokesperson also said that it is “impossible to predict
what kinds of restrictions” will need to be placed on museum
visitors as the country’s institutions begin to reopen.

The Humboldt Forum’s special opening exhibition, “Terrible
Beauty,” which presents artworks made from ivory and was planned in
collaboration with the National Museum of Kenya, has been postponed
indefinitely.

While the opening of the art galleries will no longer happen
this fall, the spokesperson says some areas, including a
restaurant, a museum shop, and a gallery devoted to this history of
the site, where the Berlin Palace used to sit, could open
before the end of the year.

The $700 million, 183,000-square-foot Humboldt Forum,
fashioned after the demolished Berlin Palace, is set to hold
the collections of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and the
Museum of Asian Art, two of the Berlin State Museums.

The sprawling museum has ignited an intense debate in Germany on
the subject of the restitution of objects acquired during Germany’s
colonial era.

The post With Foreign Construction Workers Unable to Return
to Work, the Opening of Berlin’s $700 Million Humboldt Forum Has
Been Delayed—Again appeared first on artnet News.