 There can be no doubt that it was owing to his high competence, unflagging zeal and self-sacrificing efforts exerted in the course of long decades that the Coptic Museum evolved into the flourishing scholarly institution of world renown that we know today.However, as far as its foundation is concerned, contemporary documents do not seem to support the current narrative.In the most authentic version, which Simayka Pasha jotted down decades after the event, he describes in detail the circumstances under which he founded the museum in 1908 with the aim of saving valuable silver liturgical vessels which Patriarch Cyril V wanted to sell and when upon his suggestion the Patriarch assigned a room for the storage of objects of Coptic art worthy of preservation.