[MR] Tut Show

[Costello53 at aol.com]

The first Tutankhamon show that came to the United States was, as other  
posters have said, amazing.  The funerary mask and the golden throne, with  
Tutankhamon's original name of Tutankhaten on it, alone were worth the  price of 
admission.  I admit that I was very fortunate, having been an  employee of the 
Metropolitan Museum at the time and able to pop up to the  exhibition on my 
lunch hour to see the objects.  My lord husband saw the  show in Washington and 
was thrilled.  So, it was with high hopes that we  went to this 2nd exhibition 
of Tutankhamon artifacts to tour the US.  We  saw it in Philadelphia this past 
September and were less than impressed.   There are no major objects in this 
exhibit as there were in the show that came  over in 1979-80.  In fact the 
majority of the items are secondary pieces  from the pharaohs' reigns prior to 
Tutankhamon's.  I would say that the  most interesting of them, at least for me 
having a BA degree in Egyptology from  the University of Chicago's Oriental 
Institute, were the pieces from the Valley  of the Kings tomb of Yuya and Thuya, 
parents of Queen Tiye, wife of Amonhotep  III and probably the grandmother of 
Tutankhamon.  I had seen them in the  Cairo Museum, but the lighting was poor. 
 At least in this exhibit, the  lighting was good and details were visible.   
The pieces from  Tutankhamon's tomb were about 35 in number, small and very 
much the secondary  pieces.  The exhibit did have the lovely ebony folding 
chair and the double  cartouche box, but the rest of the objects were pretty 
second rate.  The  funerary mask, while appearing on all the advertising for this 
exhibit,  including an overlay on the steps leading up to the museum, is not 
here.   However, you will have the rare opportunity to purchase in the 
exhibition gift  shop the Official Zahi Hawass exhibition hat.  If you've never seen  
anything from Tutankhamon's tomb, by all means go.  But if you saw the  first 
exhibition, this one is overpriced and not up to par.  Honestly, we  were 
disappointed.



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