Bowers Unwraps a New Mummy Exhibit

http://horus.vcsa.uci.edu/article.php?id=4063

"Hailing from the deserts of Egypt, across the Atlantic Ocean, and now settled snugly for a limited time in Orange County, comes the Bowers Museum’s Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt … Treasures from the British Museum. This mummy exhibit, designed by Paul Johnson, who is the Bowers Museum director of exhibition design, introduces visitors to the Egyptian perspective of death and the afterlife through 140 ancient Egyptian artifacts, including 14 actual mummies and coffins, the largest exhibition to be shown by the British Museum outside of the United Kingdom. After hosting Egyptian treasures from the British Museum in 2000, a friendship developed between Bowers director Peter Kelly and the British Museum’s director, Neil MacGregor. This friendship led to a 10-year contract between the two institutions, making the Bowers the American partner of the British Museum. It was “like winning the Superbowl,” said Rick Wienberg, Bowers director of marketing and public relations. The first exhibit to be shown at the Bowers since signing the contract with the British Museum was a Queen of Sheba gallery; the second is the current Mummies: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt which is open now until April 2007". See the full article for more.