Egypt says UNESCO to help museum with restoration after bombing

Egyptian plainclothes policemen stand guard in front of the Museum of Islamic Art at the site of a suicide car bomb at the Egyptian police headquarters in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Egypt's antiquities minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the explosion badly damaged the facade of the 19th century museum and artifacts inside, including a rare collection of Islamic art objects dating back to 1881. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) (The Associated Press)

An Egyptian worker peers from the window of the damaged Museum of Islamic Art after an explosion at the Egyptian police headquarters in downtown Cairo, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. Egypt's antiquities minister says the car bombing that struck the main police headquarters in Cairo earlier in the day has caused major damage to the nearby Islamic art museum.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) (The Associated Press)

CAIRO – Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Mohammed Ibrahim says a UNESCO team will travel to Cairo to assess damage inflicted on the city's Islamic Art Museum by a blast targeting a nearby security headquarters.

At a news conference Sunday, Ibrahim also says the museum will receive $100,000 from the U.N. cultural agency to help with restoration efforts.

The explosion on Friday, which targeted Cairo's main security headquarters, shook the museum located in the old Cairo district of Bab el-Khalq, propelling steel and ceiling plaster onto its glass cases and wooden artifacts and breaking water pipes.

He said a complete account of damaged artifacts has not yet been taken.

Built in 1881, the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art is home to one of the world's richest collection of artifacts from Islamic history.