Exhibition: More re Tutankhamun in Austria and the U.S.

Suite 101 (Stan Parchin)

Tutankhamun and the World of the Pharaohs, presently at Vienna, Austria's Ethnological Museum (March 9-September 28, 2008), is indeed coming to the United States.

Under the title Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, the ticketed exhibition, organized by the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, will first appear at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center in Georgia from November 15, 2008 to May 22, 2009. It will then take up residence at the Indianapolis Children's Museum from June to October 2009.

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

Over the past five years, Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly, the SCA has earned almost $350 million from 23 exhibitions sent abroad. This falls within the framework of the policy developed by the SCA to sending archaeological exhibitions abroad and at the same time give Egypt added worldwide publicity.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni stated that the money earned from these exhibitions went towards the restoration and preservation of Egypt's monuments as well as building new museums to protect its heritage. He added that the income had also provided a great opportunity to show the many faces of Egypt -- past, present and future.

Hawass pointed out that Egypt was not alone in profiting from the travelling exhibitions; so were the host countries and museums. Egypt will receive about $35 million for the Tutankhamun tour of the United Sates and England, which will share in the huge budget allocated to construct the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Pyramids of Giza.

He pointed out that the Tutankhamun exhibition had also visited Basel in Switzerland and Bonn in Germany, where it earned $6 million, before embarking on its two-year tour of four American states, from each of which it earned $9 million.

"This money is not even a drop of water in the bucket of cash needed to build this museum," Hawass said. "It is costing billions of dollars."

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