World Tour to Support New Cairo Museum
Originally the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" was intended for display only in Basel, but word of its popularity spread. Additional agreements were brokered with the Egyptian government allowing the exhibition to travel to Germany and the U.S.
Now showing at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle (Art and Exhibition Hall) in Bonn through next May, the show will arrive in the U.S. in June 2005.
The U.S. version of the exhibition will expand on the artifacts by including related National Geographic photographs and television footage. Part of the proceeds raised from the world tour will be earmarked for the construction of a new antiquities museum in Cairo and for ongoing archaeological and preservation efforts within Egypt, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society's Mission Programs division.
Photographer Kenneth Garrett has seen Egyptian artifacts like those in the exhibit more closely than most, having shot ten ancient-Egypt assignments for National Geographic magazine. The pieces, he said, are unbelievably intricate—especially when viewed with the eagle eye of a camera lens.
"They're just exquisite," Garrett remarked. "The workmanship is incredible." Whether in the U.S. or abroad, Garrett believes exhibit visitors are in for a treat. "It's really quite amazing to be in the presence of those things," he said.
The exhibition's U.S. appearances are made possible through an agreement between National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International, Anschutz Entertainment Group LIVE, and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
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