Mediterranean civilisation museum brings makeover to crime-hit Marseille A NEW flagship museum dedicated to Mediterranean civilisation in Marseille is hoping to shake off the southern metropolis' reputation as France's deadliest city with a drastic cultural makeover. The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, which is being inaugurated by French President Francois Hollande today, is the centrepiece of Marseille's turn as the European Capital of Culture for 2013, which aims to attract 10 million visitors this year. Officials see it as a unique chance to transform the ravaged image of the city - that was once a cross-road of Mediterranean civilisation but is now on considered one of Europe's deadliest cities, with 24 fatal shootings in 2012 alone. Four decades of widespread poverty in the city saw the rise of a powerful mob scene - and criminal underworld of drugs, prostitution, gambling - and, more recently, political corruption that's drawn comparisons to the Italian Camorra stronghold of Naples. The violence has centred territorial disputes between drug barons and worsened by use of automatic weapons in gang clashes. We continue to present Marseille in national and foreign media just by crime, dirt, and letting itself go. ... We forget that Marseille has a beautiful history, contributing to the rich civilisation of the Mediterranean," said Bruno Suzzarelli, the museum's director. He said that the museum can help change the city's image. Overlooking the glimmering Mediterranean Sea on the Marseille storied docks, the museum is the world's first dedicated to the heritage of the Mediterranean basin, and France's only stand-alone national museum outside of Paris. An exterior view of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations at the Fort Saint-Jean, in Marseille. It includes an impressive square building with a dappled metal shell designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti, and, the museum says, amounts to one million cultural artefacts that hark from Jerusalem, Cairo via Athens, and Marseille itself. Added to that is a renovation of the grand 17th century fortification Saint Jean, which was previously closed to the public, that's joined to the museum by a sleek metal gangway. Officials are optimistic for the project, aiming for some 300,000 visitors a year for the museum alone, that would double what Marseille got in recent years. But the road has not been easy - beset by delays and political wrangling over 13 years and three presidents - the final product is an expensive cultural gamble at a cost of over 200 million euros ($270 million). It looks impressive and we all hope it will succeed. We need real change here, renewal," said Chloe Rabuel, a local Marseille bartender. But we have to wait and see. French architect Rudy Ricciotti poses in a passageway of the museum, which he designed.