beaux arts

The old museum is housed in a stately yet crumbling Beaux-Arts building in Tahrir Square that dates from 1902, while the GEM, sprawling over the Giza Plateau, is sleek and ultramodern, and sometimes reminiscent of an Emirati airport with its high-end gift shop and food court.

One thing it clarifies is why Jim Crow monuments are all rendered in the same backward, Beaux-Arts style, exploiting classical forms and elaborate ornamentation harnessed for the 1890s City Beautiful movement.

Instead, using Beaux-Arts style deep into the 20th century invoked the pre-modern past.

Several of these artists were students of the great 19th century Beaux-Arts sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who was a generation older.

The retailer occupied various locations over the years and moved to its current Beaux-Arts home in 1928.