sentences:  Upon Syrian independence in 1946, the French Institute was dissolved and evacuated from the building and the house was returned to the Azm family, six years later in 1951 it was purchased by the Syrian government for 100,000 pounds ($30,000), which turned it into the Museum of Arts and Popular Traditions.Shafiq Imam was appointed the director of the museum, which opened in 1954.The crowd for the museum's opening greatly exceeded expectations that led Shafiq Imam to design a new staircase for the main hall to allow visitors to enter from one side and leave from another.