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King Tutankhamun’s treasures in major exhibition

Posted on Feb, 27, 2019
Contributed to WCHV by Danielle

It has been reported that 150 ancient artifacts will be displayed in a major exhibition commemorating the centenary of the discovery of the pharaoh’s tomb. The largest collection of the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s treasures to ever travel out of Egypt will be displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London later this year. Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh (2 November 2019-3 May 2020) will commemorate the centenary of the discovery of the ancient-Egyptian ruler’s tomb with original 150 artifacts to go on display, 60 of which have never travelled outside of Egypt.

The show started by opening in March 2018 at the California Science Centre in Los Angeles before travelling to La Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris (1 March-31 September). The exhibition will tour 10 cities in total. Among the exhibited works will be a golden canopic coffinette used to house Tuttenkhamun’s mummified stomach, and a 5cm-tall golden statue (1336-1326BC) which contemporary scholars now believe to be a likeness for Tutanhkhamun rather than his grandfather as was originally thought.

These ancient artifacts, which were housed in the nearly-intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, were discovered in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. Previous exhibitions in London have drawn record crowds of over one million visitors each in both 1972 and 2007. Both these shows contained less than 55 artifacts from the tomb, roughly a third of the number of works which will be displayed in this exhibition.

The proceeds from this exhibition will help support the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo which is expected to open in 2020. Upon the show’s conclusion, Tutankhamun’s artifacts will return to Egypt and be permanently displayed in the museum.

 

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