... In the 1970s, crowds in record numbers lined up to take in these
antiquities. Thirty years later, the exhibit of Tutankhamen's treasures
has been expanded to include 130 ancient items, not only from his tomb
but also other royal sites in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
"Last time, we dealt with only 20 years of ancient Egypt. This time
we're dealing with more than 100 years," said the University of
Pennsylvania's Dr. David Silverman...
King Tut Exhibit To Open On Friday, CBS2 Chicago,
Illinois, USA, May 24, 2006.
Does deal tarnish Tut's golden touch?
... The exhibit of more than 130 artefacts — with a cover
charge of $25 for adults — opens at the Field Museum on Friday
with an unusual and, in some circles, controversial, back story. Unlike
most museum exhibits, this edition of Tutankhamun is the fruit of a
profit-making private company, AEG, better known for promoting rock 'n'
roll than pharaohs.
While museums don't run merely on good intentions, the institutions
generally position themselves as places of education. Typically, museums
erect their own exhibits or rent them with and to each other in the name
of scholarship.
Financially, there's a king's ransom at stake with Tut: AEG is paying
Egypt, which owns the artefacts, a minimum of $5 million to display
Tut's riches at the Field, the third of four American museums hosting
the exhibit. With a cut of the ticket price and a share of the souvenir
gate, Egypt reportedly stands to rake in perhaps $36 million from the
entire U.S. tour of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the
Pharaohs..."
Does deal tarnish Tut's golden touch?, Chicago
Sun-Times, Illinois, USA, May 24, 2006.
'Everywhere, the glint of gold ...'
"No freebies."
That was the response of Dr. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, last year about the possibility
of bringing the treasures and tombs of Egypt to American
museumgoers.
And when the Field Museum began courting Hawass and the Egyptian
government more than a year ago to bring an Egyptian exhibit to Chicago,
hosting a return visit of King Tutankhamun wasn't even a
consideration.
"I thought maybe we would allow one of our other collections of
artefacts," Hawass told the media and VIPs who gathered Wednesday in the
main hall of The Field Museum in Chicago...
'Everywhere, the glint of gold ...', The Northwest
Indiana Times, Indiana, USA, May 25, 2006.
And finally a review.
Well-chosen Tut artefacts pack a punch
... The exhibition begins in a small room as dark as a tomb, lit only
by sconces. A brief movie sets the scene for what lies ahead. You learn
how British archaeologist Howard Carter found the tomb in 1922 and how
Tut ruled after a period of great change in ancient Egypt. After the
movie, a curtain is supposed to whoosh open to reveal a large black
granite statue of King Tut, but on the day we previewed the exhibition,
the curtain wasn't working.
The exhibit quickly creates a sense of drama. In one room, you walk
onto a golden marble floor imported from Egypt and suddenly you're in a
temple, complete with massive columns.
In another, you walk into near darkness, with hieroglyphs from the
Book of the Dead projected onto the walls. In the centre of the room
sits the coffin of King Tut's greatgrandmother, massive and
golden...
Well-chosen Tut artefacts pack a punch, Chicago
Tribune, Illinois, USA, May 25, 2006.
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