Tutankamun Exhibition

Museum to unveil treasures from King Tut's tomb
Kylie Northover and Michelle Griffin
October 29, 2010


The coffinette for the viscera of Tutankhamun is displayed at the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs exhibition in Los Angeles last year.
Treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamun will be seen in Australia for the first time when the Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs exhibition opens at the Melbourne Museum in April next year.

The exhibition, part of the museum's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, will feature more than 130 artefacts from Tut's tomb and the tombs and temples of his ancestors from Egypt's 200-year “Golden Age”.

Billed as “the greatest exhibition of all time," more than seven million people across the US and in London have seen the artefacts since its debut in 2005.

Egypt's Ministry of Culture has spiked interest by vowing that this is the last time the boy king's tomb treasures will ever leave his homeland.

Only last December, the director of Sydney's Australian Museum, Frank Howarth, said the show's $10 million price tag and its size were too big for Australian institutions to handle.

But in a coup for Victoria, the Melbourne Museum entered a partnership with sports and entertainment management company IMG to bring the king to Melbourne. Victorian Major Events Company and the State Government also helped to underwrite the bill.

"We looked at bringing it out ourselves and the answer was no," said Dr Patrick Greene, the director of the Melbourne Museum. "It needed IMG to take on the risk."

One of the last kings of Egypt's 18th Dynasty, Tutankhamun was believed to have been a minor monarch, yet he lives large in both modern archaeology and mythology.

Among the treasures that will go on display in April is Tut's diadem, the golden headpiece found around Tut's head when Howard Carter opened the royal coffin in the 1930s, 3000 years after the king was entombed.

The exhibition also features several ritual figures of kings and deities; the Falcon Collar found on Tut's mummy; and golden daggers and jewellery.

Not since the 1970s has King Tut fever been so high, with the exhibition attracting record crowds in the US and garnering rave reviews.

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/museum-to-unveil-treasures-from-king-tuts-tomb-20101029-176xv.html