Rapid Site Report: Damage to Storage Facilities at the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum, Sudan

Since the onset of civil war in Sudan on 15 April 2023, cultural heritage sites have sustained damage, including the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum, as confirmed by a previous report. After initial damage to the building, storage spaces at the Sudan National Museum were damaged starting in June 2023. Twenty-foot shipping containers, another storage facility known as Magazine Z, and excavation mission vehicles located in the southeast quadrant of the museum's grounds have since been damaged or removed from the property. Analysis conducted by the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (CHML), in collaboration with the Museum Conservation Institute–Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (MCI-SCRI) and the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (PennCHC), confirmed this damage. This review was undertaken after further reports of damage and looting at the National Museum appeared in news outlets.

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CITE THIS REPORT: Fitzgerald, K., Bassett, H., Hanson, K., Welsh, W., Maher, A., Muller, C. E., Kane, K. E., Gunter-Bassett, M., and Daniels, B. I. (2025). “Rapid Site Report: Damage to Storage Facilities at the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum, Sudan.” Virginia Museum of Natural History, Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Penn Cultural Heritage Center; and Smithsonian Institution, Museum Conservation Institute–Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative. DOI 10.25573/data.28652234