Here's why we love King Tut so much: There's a tiny, 18-inch Tut coffin that is so elaborate, so gorgeous, it takes your breath away.

And that golden coffin was crafted to hold the boy king's liver. That's right. His liver.

This coffinette is just one of the marvels of the new "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" show, which opened May 26 at the Field Museum. It is the first time King Tut has been back in Chicago since the blockbuster 1977 exhibition.

...

But you won't be seeing the solid gold death mask, the highlight of the 1977 show, or Tut's coffin. Those will stay put in Egypt. And, it must be said, there are no mummies.

"This is not about gold and the curse," said Hawass, in town for the opening of the exhibition. Instead, the aim is to educate the public about the life and times of the boy king, he said...

From what I understand, the Tutankhamun mask shown on the promotional material for the show — that causes cries of "where's the mask?" from the public — is actually a blown up photograph of the face of the above-mentioned miniature coffinette.

A Field full of gold embodies mystery of Egypt's boy king, South Bend Tribune, Indiana, USA, June 11, 2006.

cf. Show Puts Focus On Tut's Life And Time, Hartford Courant, Connecticut, USA, June 11, 2006.

Ethereal Tut

Five restaurants close to museum offer eats, and a chocolate pharaoh for fun.

Ethereal Tut, South Bend Tribune, Indiana, USA, June 11, 2006.

Just as we finally learn how to pronounce Tutankhamun, along comes Wenudjebauendjed.

A military leader of Egypt's 21st Dynasty, his gleaming gold funeral mask is the "face" of the travelling exhibition "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt," which opened Friday at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.

His serene countenance stares out from kohl-rimmed eyes on billboards, banners and brochures promoting the exhibition that features more than 100 artefacts that relate to the Egyptians' belief in the afterlife.

On loan from the Egyptian government, the priceless antiquities come from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum and the archaeological sites of Tanis and Deir el-Bahari. After opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in June 2002, the exhibition has travelled to seven other museums across the country and will go on to Portland, Ore., and Houston before returning to Egypt...

Ancient Egyptian military leader's mask exhibited, St. Paul Pionner Press, Minnesota, USA, June 11, 2006.

Nashvillians are getting a firsthand look at that alluring and mystical world with The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, which opened at the Frist on Friday. Organized by the United Exhibits Group, Copenhagen, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in association with the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, the show is the largest collection of artefacts ever loaned by Egypt to travel across North America.

With objects spanning more than a millennium, from 1550 B.C. to 332 B.C., the Frist Center galleries will be overflowing with the materials that make Egyptology so engrossing: gold, intricately wrought jewels, enormous stone sculptures, ornately decorated coffins, hieroglyphic texts. As an added bonus, the Frist has pulled together an accompanying exhibit of human and animal mummies — giving visitors an up-close look at life and death in a civilization thousands of years removed from our own.

As the title suggests, The Quest for Immortality focuses on the defining trait of the ancient Egyptians: their belief that, through careful preparation and observance, their bodies and their belongings could transcend death and find eternal life in the great beyond. And it is this fixation in particular, suggests Frist Center curator Mark Scala, that continues to capture our attention thousands of years later...

Frist exhibit unmasks Ancient Egypt, The Tennessean, Tennessee, USA, June 11, 2006.

cf. Frist exhibit unmasks Ancient Egypt, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia, USA, June 11, 2006.

In conjunction with the newly displayed "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, renowned archaeologist and Egyptologist Zahi Hawass will present a lecture titled "Recent Discoveries in Egypt" at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's James K. Polk Theater.

A regular on the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel, Hawass has earned celebrity status as a master scholar of Egyptian antiquities and culture. His lecture will cover topics including the recent finding of two intact tombs at Giza, a new pyramid found at Saqqara, and the discovery of 105 perfectly preserved mummies among an estimated 10,000 at the Valley of the Golden Mummies.

Tickets are $20 for Frist Center members and $25 for non-members, and are expected to sell out.

Lecture digs into 'Egypt' exhibit, The Tennessean, Tennessee, USA, June 12, 2006.

An ancient Egyptian vessel expected to sell for as much as $30,000 at auction this week has been pulled from the sale over concerns about how it was removed from Egypt, Christie's auction house said Monday.

"Upon receiving information which led us to believe that the object had possibly been improperly taken out of Egypt, we contacted the appropriate U.S. authorities and withdrew the item from the sale," the auction house said in a statement.

The auction house would not elaborate on what it had learned about the object's removal from Egypt.

The piece was part of a private collection in Israel and was acquired prior to 1975, the catalogue said...

There is not that much new information here than the Reuters version of the story I posted yesterday.

An ancient Egyptian vessel expected to sell for as much as $30,000..., AP via Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky, USA, June 12, 2006.

cf. Auction Ends After Concerns Artefact Was Stolen, 1010 Wins, California, USA, June 12, 2006.