Exhibition: Gift for the Gods going to Switzerland

Egypt State Information Service

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has approved that the exhibition "Gift for the Gods: Image from Egyptian Temples," which has recently closed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art can move to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Martigny, Switzerland, on March 13 for four months.

The Swiss side has offered 70,000 dollars to Egypt for holding the exhibition, according to Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni.

They also offered necessary insurance documents against any losses, Minister Farouk Hosni said Saturday.

The exhibition, which opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 16, 2007, showcases some 70 superb statues and statuettes created in precious metals and copper alloys including bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) over more than two millennia.

The exhibition brings masterpieces from around the world, including seven extremely rare inlaid and decorated large bronzes from the first half of the first millennium, the so-called Third Intermediate Period (1070 - 664 B.C.), the apogee of Egyptian metalwork.