What's remarkable about the Tut show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for which the museum has effectively sold its good name and gallery space to a for-profit company, is that people still find this arrangement shocking.

Outrageous?   Sure.   It's an abdication of responsibility, integrity, standards.   But it's becoming the norm in the United States.

Money rules.   It always has, of course.   But at cultural institutions today, it seems increasingly to corrupt ethics and undermine bedrock goals like preserving collections and upholding the public interest...

When museums play a commodities game, International Herald Tribune, France, July 16, 2005.

Ancient artefacts smuggled out of Egypt as part of a major antiquities scam were returned to Egyptian authorities on Tuesday after being discovered for sale on an Australian Internet auction site.

The seven funeral objects, dated to about 664 BC, included a small statue, amulets, an axe head and a bowl, and were part of a collection of 50,000 artefacts illegally taken out of Egypt two years ago...

Australia returns stolen artefacts to Egypt, Reuters, UK, July 19, 2005.

Two natural wonders of Africa have been added to a list of protected World Heritage sites by the United Nations...

Egypt's Wadi al-Hitan, known as Whale Valley, was listed for its amazing fossil remains of now-extinct whales...

Africa World Heritage sites named, BBC News, UK, July 15, 2005.

Here are [San Francisco Chronicle's] suggestions for beating those crowds — there and at almost any sort of blockbuster museum show.

1. Become a member of the host museum.   Decide which venue would be most convenient for your visit, and become a member of that institution, at least for the year of the exhibit.   Members usually enjoy preferential tickets, including VIP tickets that allow you to bypass general admission lines, plus reduced prices and discounts in the museum's store...

Strategies for attending the return of the king, San Francisco Chronicle, California, USA, July 17, 2005.

This travel article is dated over a month ago but I have only just found it.

The intricate 3500-year-old temple carved into the base of a sheer limestone cliff face draws your attention well before you see the youths with Kalashnikov rifles.

As at every ancient attraction in Egypt, a handful of "Tourism and Antiquities Police" — many barely old enough to shave — patrol the stunning Temple of Hatshepsut near the tourist hub at Luxor, on the Nile.

They look inexperienced and sleepy, but their uniforms and guns betray their symbolic importance in modern Egypt.

...

While the armed youths look foreboding, they are there for tourists' protection on the historic route from Cairo down the Nile to Luxor, Aswan and the flooded former land of Nubia...

In awe of the ancients, News.com.au, Australia, June 05, 2005.