Adam Henein

[2] Henein became known as a sculptor in the 1950s; he received the Luxor prize in 1954–56, and his work was shown in Cairo, Alexandria, and Munich by the end of that decade.

From 1989 to 1998 Henein headed the design team involved in the restoration of the Great Sphinx of Giza, drawing on his experience as a sculptor to determine how the monument was originally carved.

It was in Aswan, a city that since Antiquity has been famous for its granite quarries, that Henein established the International Sculpture Symposium, of which he was the director from 1996.

The Adam Henein Museum, which opened Saturday 18 January 2014 in Cairo's Al-Harraniya district, is a priceless gift from the artist himself to the country.

Throughout the years his body of work is the way in which the artist interweaves universal themes—motherhood, birds, boats and prayer among them—with references to Egyptian icons such as pyramids, obelisks, Pharaonic kings and hieroglyphs.