A sanctuary of art: The long journey of the Sursock museum

In 1912, Lebanese aristocrat Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock built a private villa in Beirut exemplifying Lebanese architecture with its Venetian and Ottoman architectural influences. A lover of art, Sursock decreed that when he left this world the building would be transformed into a museum. In 1952, upon his passing, it was bequeathed to the city of Beirut. To this day, since its opening as a museum in 1961, it has become a welcoming place for art and culture not just for the Lebanese but for visitors from around the world.

Sursock’s villa is one of very few remaining of its time. Located on Rue Sursock in the Rmeil district of Beirut, it reminds all who behold it of another era and of the building’s resilience. It has withstood the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020.

Sursock’s vision as an avid collector and patron of the arts in Lebanon was to bequeath his villa to the people of Lebanon and transform it into an art museum upon his death.  He recognized the great need for institutional support for Lebanese artists. He stated this in the following: “As I love fine art and long for its development, particularly in my homeland, Lebanon . . . As I wish for this country to receive a substantial contribution of fine art works, and that my fellow citizens might appreciate art and develop an artistic instinct . . . I, Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock . . . set up in the form of waqf [trust] all of [my] estate . . . in order that this property and its contents form a museum for arts, ancient and modern, originating from the territory of the Republic of Lebanon, other Arab countries or elsewhere, as well as a space where Lebanese artists’ work shall be exhibited . . . it being understood that this Museum shall remain eternally and perpetually . . . This ensemble will be entitled the Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum, and shall be handed over to the mutawalli, who will be the President of the Municipality of Beirut, regardless of which political regime exists at the time.”

However, for many years after Sursock’s death in 1952 a presidential decree usurped the use of the villa for years. Between 1953 and 1957, then President Camille Chamoun turned the villa into a palais des hôtes, a presidential palace to house various visiting heads of states, including the Shah of Iran and King Faisal of Iraq.

“The villa had to go through a few stages before it became a museum; we highlighted during the museum’s reopening [in 2023] how for nine years it hosted presidential guests and was used as a guest house for the Lebanese president,” said Karina Helou, Director of the Sursock Museum.

Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane, a champion of Lebanon’s art and architectural heritage, who died from injuries due to the Beirut blast in 2020, greatly advocated for the museum, and became president of the committee and general manager of the museum from 1960 until 1966.

The process of transforming the villa into a museum took decades, explains Helou, and it was really around the time of the Lebanese civil war, which began in 1975 that the museum became more of place to host exhibitions.

“The museum went through many ruptures to become the institution that it is today,” emphasized Karina. “First, there was the building, the architectural component, one extension and then a second extension, and gradually the collection was brought together, while the archival department was created during the Civil War. The building gradually transformed from a villa to an exhibition space to a museum.”

In addition to the villa, Sursock also bequeathed to the museum his expansive collection of art and antiquities amounting to over 400 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, antique furniture, tapestries, silverware, crystalware and ceramics—most of which can still be seen in the museum today.

Among the highlights from the original villa that can still be seen is the Salon Arabe, the central lounge area where Sursock greeted his guests, which remains intact but had to be heavily reconstructed following the Beirut blast. Of note is the antique hand-carved woodwork that decorates its walls and ceiling that was imported from Damascus in the 1920s. Its walls and ceiling are also covered with 17th–19th century paneling painted with floral and vegetal patterns and landscapes. Some of the villa’s original tiles are still visible on the first floor of the museum. Sursock’s study has been kept as it was, showcasing the same furniture and personal objects.  In 1999, the museum was classified as a Class A historical building by the Directorate General of Antiquities.

The period of 1952-61 witnessed the growth of Lebanon’s cultural scene even as the country began to fall into turbulence with civil strife in the late 1950s marking the first conflicts since Lebanese independence in 1943.

During this period, its initial founding, the museum operated as a museum without walls. Its first exhibition was staged in 1957 in the UNESCO building in Beirut and titled “The First Imaginary Museum in the World, inspired by French novelist André Malraux’s Le Musée Imaginaire. It featured 664 framed color reproductions of masterpieces from Asia, Europe, and America.

Finally, in 1961, the museum opened its doors with the Salon d’Automne: an open call exhibition showcasing new art of the time. The salon, which followed a 19th-century French model, gave prizes to the most innovative artworks. Artists featured in the salon during the 1960s included some of Lebanon’s most revered names such as Shafic Abboud, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Yvette Achkar, Etel Adnan, Michel Basbous, Paul Guiragossian, Elie Kanaan, Aref el Rayess, and Adel Saghir.

Hosted alongside the Salon d’Automne were exhibitions from around the world, from Syrian contemporary art to works from Asia and European modern art.

These years up until the civil war signaled Lebanon’s Golden Age (mid-1950s to 1975). The museum’s story of resilience and resistance continued, and it stayed open throughout most of the war, even during such a period of heightened uncertainty. Even amid war, the Sursock Museun continued its acquisition strategy to expand its permanent collection, acquiring artworks by Khalil Zgheib and Saliba Douaihy, among others and a nine volume Torah by Gebraiil Sahyoun and works of Islamic art dating to the 12th and 13th centuries.

The museum, even during moments of intense calamity in Beirut, stood tall and proud, serving as visual rhetoric for the resilience of the country and the Lebanese people through art and creativity.

The museum’s policies, continuity and passion to persevere, help to establish, notes Helou, a public image of cultural and social significance still relevant today.

The revival continued. In 2008, the Museum closed for major renovation and expansion works that saw a fivefold increase in its total surface area, from 1,500 square meters to around 8,500 square meters. The architectural and design overhaul was meant to equip the museum with facilities to transform into a major cutting-edge 21st-century cultural institution. It reopened in 2015 with 7,000 square meters of exhibition space and was overseen by architects. Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Jacques Aboukhaled.

“The big revival [for the museum] was reopening constantly after each trauma,” explains Helou. “The last war was quite traumatic as well as the one two to three months ago. Then there was the Beirut Port Blast in 2020. The revival is the fact that this building is linked to the city, and it has had so many challenges, but every time it was able to overcome these challenges and pursue its mission, which is being the first contemporary modern arts museum in the Arab world since it opened in 1961.”

In May 2023, the Sursock Museum reopened again. This time after extensive damages due to the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020. Lebanese creative professionals collectively called the reopening “a miracle” amid the country’s ongoing socio-political and economic upheaval.

Helou called the rebuilding “part of our healing so that we can look into the future and dream again.” As she emphasizes, the revival of the Sursock Museum is about its resilience, its belief in the beauty and power of art to shine light on Lebanese culture and heritage as well as that from the greater Arab world not just to Lebanese but to people from around the world. This was the hope and dream of its founder, Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock. It has come true.