Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Failed bid for casino threatens UK visit of Tutankhamun

"Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) of Los Angeles, The O2's developer and owner, also may challenge the awarding of the license to the English city of Manchester, according to British press reports. The $1.1 billion O2 project, which is being built around the Millennium Dome on London's Greenwich Peninsula, has 'postponed' a major exhibition of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen artifacts, according to British news stories.
The British government's Casino Advisory Panel recently recommended that economically troubled Manchester get the license to build the super-casino. The government is expected to act on the panel's suggestion. . . . AEG threatened to withhold the $350 million it planned to invest in the dome's redevelopment as a live-entertainment venue, if the project didn't get the casino license. . . . The O2 may not have gotten the Tut exhibit anyway.
Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in December that he didn't want his country's "King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit to show at The O2 starting this year if the venue has a casino, according to British and Middle Eastern press reports. The exhibit was scheduled to show at The O2 for six months, starting in the fall of 2007 and running into '08."
See the above page for the full story.

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