Ownership dispute casts doubt on future of Cairo bookstore
Egypt's Culture Ministry steps in to protect the valuable books and manuscripts at the Orientalist, a bookstore in Cairo, after its owner dies.
CAIRO — The Egyptian actor and tenor Hassan Kami, who died Dec. 14, has left behind a legal muddle involving the Orientalist, one of Cairo’s best-known bookstores. Among the 40,000 items in the store are a number of rare first editions and valuable manuscripts that Kami never offered for sale but now stand at the crux of a legal dispute over rightful owners and Egypt's cultural heritage.
Kami’s lawyer, Amr Ramadan, claims that the actor had sold him the bookstore and its contents a few years before his death, but Kami's family is contesting the validity of such a transaction. In addition, given the value and nature of some of the rarities in the shop, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the country's largest library, have stepped into the fray to protect what they see as Egypt's literary heritage.
