King Tut's Treasures Expensive for Australian Museum
The blockbuster exhibition 'King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs' will not tour Australia because museums cannot afford it - not surprisingly if you look at the price tag. Egypt wants to prolong the world's most successful tour of artefacts from the tomb of the boy-king but offers to host the exhibition have been underwhelming, to say the least. The Director of the Australian Museum, Frank Howarth, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the show's $10 million price tag and its size were too big for Australian institutions to handle.
Dr. Zahi Hawass said - despite earlier claims from Egypt that Tutankhamun's treasures would never leave the Cairo Museum (check out its basement in this video!) again when this tour is completed - the exhibition could travel to Australia early in 2012 if a museum was willing to host it. ''I want to see King Tut go to Australia,'' Dr Hawass told the Herald in his office in Cairo last week. ''I have been planning for it to go to Australia but no one from Australia has asked me at all.'' ''Nothing like this has ever been to Australia before, and it will be many, many years before the opportunity will come again,'' Dr Hawass added.
We couldn't get the level of return that would justify the King Tutankhamun show.
Egypt wanted to charge $10 million for every six months that the objects for 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' (currently in Toronto) were on loan - for which you don't get Tut's Golden Death Mask. That amount required audiences Australia did not have, the Director of the Australian Museum, Frank Howarth said. ''There's no way an Australian venue would return that sort of money,'' he told the Herald. ''We couldn't get the level of return that would justify the King Tutankhamun show.'' (Having slaughtered my piggy bank as well as my savings account and coming no where near the amount needed to get myself an autographed 'A Secret Voyage', I can somewhat relate.)
In stead, the Australian Museum - until December 6th - hosted 'Egyptian Treasures: Art of the Pharaohs', from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Austria. By contrast, it cost about $1.5 million. For that amount you still get: 1 mummy (Nekhet-iset-aru) including linen bandaging, 3 coffins and over 30 statues - including a 2 metre statue of Sekhmet and the Sphinx of Pharoah Amenhotep III (watch the video about his mortuary temple) as well as some 'Book of the Deads', Egyptian jewellery, canopic jars, amulets (non-alien), steles and some tiny shabtis for good measure. Not that bad a deal? Besides, you don't need the artefacts to Do the Tut and... you can always have a good look at the Boy King's amazing treasures - for free - in Heritage Key's King Tut Virtual.
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What a post!! Very interesting... Looking for more posts like this!! Keep you the goodwork!
Anyway thank you for this blog.
Actually that's the phrase used in the media release - that being said - bad choice of wording.
http://www.drhawass.com/blog/press-release-new-settlement-discovered-kharga-oasis
They did not 'stumbled upon' the site...they have been excavating and surveying this area for some years now...
Interesting that you think Celtic people stretched FROM Scotland to other places globally, actually celtic people originated in what we refer to as Eurasia migrated up and over to Breton,…
Well, Latasha, if you know all about King Tut, no doubt you've heard about the two latest theories - weakened immune system and malaria (widely covered, and featured in the…
Next major 'ancient' exhibition in London:
Journey Through the Afterlife: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
at the British Museum
November 2010 - March 2011
(lean more)
Comments
You can see the logic from the Australians:
the country only has s population of just over 20 million, compared to Britain's 60 million (plus whatever number would have visited the London exhibition from Europe). The numbers just don't stack up for Australian museums.
As the article Ann references says: "Greater Los Angeles has almost 20 million people within 1.5 hours' drive of the show, nearly as much as as Australia's entire population."
If Dr Hawass really did want to see King Tut go Down Under and for the world to share is country's amazing cultural heritage, then he'd be more sympathetic to the plight of museums in less-populated countries and reconsider his $10m pricetage. Others have found a way to make 'blockbusters' viable in Australia - a major exhibition of Impressionist art featuring Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne has just opened at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. A Dali exhibition in Melbourne was also extremely popular, as was a Monet exhibition in Sydney. Here is a good related article about 'blockbusters' Down Under.
This is such a shame that the Tutankhamun and the Golden age of the pharaohs exibition will not be coming to Australia,
this exibition is a dream exibition, it would be awesome for it to visit Australian shores. So Iam very very disapointed that the Tutankhamun Exibition will not coming at all. All I can say is SHAME SHAME SHAME
Maybe someone in Oz ought to start a campaign...
Hello Australian, i read this News and i visit the Tutankhamun Event in Munich and Hamburg in Germany. Its fantastic and great Event to see all Pieces from this Tomb in one Place. Its the Solution for the Future that all History presents by Replicas and the Artist Dr.Mostafa ElEzapy from Egypt is Nr.1 Worldwide to produce this Replicas by this Level.The Egyptologys Mr.Loprieno or other give him the best Reference. So look to his Site www.goldentut.com or look to www.tut-ausstellung.com and you will see what 1 Million Visitors see before.I hope Australian can present the Same Event by this Way.
Hi Martin, we know about the Semel 'replica' exhibition. Although I've not seen it myself, it seems like a worthy alternative for those who can't make it to Egypt, or follow 'Tut on Tour' around. (Especially for schools, a trip to Cairo can easily be to expensive! ;))
Hi Ann,
i have a very nice Info about all Replicas from Dr.Mostafa El Ezapy and also from another Magazin about him.
I talk with him about Australia and he like to come and present this Event . What you think about this Event in Australia?
Here the Info Site www.panoramajournal.ch
and by www.jungemedienhamburg.worldpress.com
byby waiting for next answer from you
Hi Martin, then Dr El Ezapy should definitely contact the Australian Museum. I could not find anything on panoramajournal relating to this, though and the second link does not work for me.
Ann
Hi Ann, please contact me by martinprelle@hotmail.de and i will send you more Details.
According to Egypt's state information service, last week "Dr Zahi Hawass Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas said that the last displaying trip of Tutankhamun hit dlrs 100 million." This has increased the total revenue of museums inside and antiquities traveling abroad to one billion Egyptian pounds. (That's about $176,314,000.) He made this statement at the 'Egypt between past, present and future' conference.
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