VANITY -- King Tut Exhibit a waste of time (though not of money)

[AUsome Joy]

We saw the Tut exhibit in Chicago. We took our then young kids.

Your mention of flying out of Cairo on the same flight as Testrake reminded me of a flight my husband and I took out of Amsterdam in September 1970. Two flights had been skyjacked from Amsterdam, September 6, just before we flew out and security was extremely tight. They took every thing, including my purse, away from me. I didn't start feeling safe until we passed Ireland.

When we got back to USA some suspicious (blackpanther types to me) paid cash for first class seats on our continuing flight and then paced back and forth before entering the plane. This was from LaGuardia to Birmingham. I just knew we were going to be taken to Cuba.

This wasn't an unreasonable fear since a friend of mine had been highjacked to Cuba on a flight from Minneapolis to Miama by the Black Panthers. She and her baby were there overnight and flown back to US.

[Smogger]

Have yous seen Ramses II? Although, I never saw the first Tut (not having been born) I was very impressed with Ramses II that made it to the Museum of Natural History in Denver after an extensive remodeling sometime in the late 80's early 90's. I have heard that the pieces in the Ramses II were much more abundant than the pieces in the original Tut exhibition. Any comment (if you have seen both?)

[GreenHornet]

I still remember the time he tried to destroy Batman using the Egyptian Pebble Torture.

[Disambiguator]

I must have missed that one.

[TXnMA]

I saw the Tut exhibit in Seattle -- on a Boeing VIP courtsy ticket. IMHO, the atmosphere in the display room was awesome, and the artifacts stunning. The funeral mask was spectacular, but I was particularly smitten by the small (<2' tall) statue of Selket:

If the funeral mask and Selket are not in this show, I agree that it is decidedly inferior to its predecessor.

[newzjunkey]

A failed culture that produced a pair of embryo burials masks ONE of which *is* part of that Tut exhibit.

Having got to the LACMA exhibit last weekend, it was disappointing in that it's barely tut-related. There's some fantastic pieces on display but as the original post says, the overwhelming majority of the 128 artifacts are *not* Tut related. There are a couple chairs, the thingy that contained his liver, a pair of boats, a knife, a couple necklesses but the rest, including the one large sarcofogace mentioned in the vanity above are not Tut items. Still, there's fantastic workmanship on display and if you haven't had the opportunities bragged about up thread, it's worth a look!

I will say it wasn't worth the special trip made to L.A.

[freedumb2003]

My wife has made it clear we WILL be going.

Don't forget, a few trinkets is still historical. For those of us who can't or won't go to Egypt (since I would like to stay alive and I don't want to lie and say I am Canadian), we'll touch what we can.

[newzjunkey]

Just came back from the King Tut exhibit in LA. I saw the exhibit in '76, and have seen the Tut exhibit in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and have been to the Luxor Museum / Valley of Kings / Valley of Queens / Abu Simbel / etc.

It must be nice to have all that kind of exposure. I haven't so I thought more of the exhibit than you and your eager-to-please girlfriend. Still, I do agree it borders on fraudulent given that the actual number of Tut exhibit items are few. But the overall exhibit gives a good look at the workmanship of the ancient culture including a poke in the eye to western abortion-lovers in the form of one of the fetal death masks.

It wasn't worth the special trip north to L.A. but it wasn't a complete waste of time either. My understanding is none of the significant objects you complained about the exhibit lacking travel outside Egypt anymore. How long was your wait in the tent? We had 'anytime' tickets so we had barely a five minute wait.

[Judith Anne]

We saw the Tut exhibit in Chicago with OUR still-young kids...I thought it was breathtaking, very very beautiful.

No hijacking experiences, though, we drove. ;-D

[Judith Anne]

Matter of fact, now that I think about it, we were able to see it the day before it opened to the public, something about my in-laws the museum members or something else nice like that. No crowds, and we could look as long as we wanted...

[Jubal Harshaw]

My wait in the tent was 0 minutes. There was almost no one there, so we just walked right in.

I just wanted to comment on your statement that "....the overall exhibit gives a good look at the workmanship of the ancient culture." Of course, the exhibit does give a good look at the workmanship of the goods had by the Egyptian nobility. The workmanship is fantastic, no doubt. All that stuff is a lot nicer than anything I'll ever own. However, the wonderful thing about the '76 exhibit, and the ongoing exhibit in Cairo, is that they display the next level of workmanship, namely the workmanship associated with ROYAL goods. THAT stuff is simply amazing. I think it's fair to say that the royal stuff is overwhelmingly amazing, and it's that "Amazing Pharonic Stuff" that is simply not present at the '05 exhibit.



I don't want to be too critical of the '05 exhibit. It's got some nice stuff. However, the '05 exhibit shows only glimpses of the real artistry available to an ancient Pharaoh.

[ADemocratNoMore]

Saw the "Tutankhamun Treasures" exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art. It ran from mid Dec. '62 to mid Jan '63.

http://www.nga.gov/past/data/exh204.shtm

I'm looking at the catalog and this exhibition did not have anything bigger than a breadbox as well. What it did have was magnificently crafted objects of rare beauty. Unfortunately, I have look at the pictures to make that observation as I was only 10 at the time and my memory of the experience has faded over the years.

[windcliff]

ping

[mlmr]

Well for starters you probably won't have a solid gold death mask and 4 coffins.

Now that is something to aspire to...

[HitmanLV]

My friend told me that part of the marketing campaign includes the slogan 'The King of Bling.' Please, somebody tell me that's not true!

I was a kid in nyc in '77 and saw the exhibit then, which was pretty awesome to my 9 year old sensibilities. A shame that this new US tour seems like a huge letdown.

In any case, it's a huge turnoff that some of the marketing i did see insisted that once this tour is over, the goodies would vanish back to Egypt forever. Yea, right, I wasn't born yesterday!! Hahaha!

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off the list.

Interesting views of this exhibit. I had thought of taking my children when it comes east. Now I'm not so sure.

[SunkenCiv]

Please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
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[bannie]

I LOOOOVE the Museum of Natural History...near the stadium.

Ain't that culture 'nuf?

[Thinkin' Gal]

All in all, for us it was a waste of time. The price was OK (~$20.00 each), but it was probably worth ~$10.00 / person. If you have a free afternoon, and want to see a few second-rate Egyptian trinkets that may be related to Tut, then it's a way to kill a few hours.

That's too bad. Tut's not at the British Museum either, but it is bursting at the seams with Egyptian artifacts and so many sarcophagi (sp?) that it all becomes a blur, and that's only a small fraction of the place. Several visits are needed to take it all in. And it's free.

This week might be a bad time to drop by, however.

[fish hawk]

Would take a hell of a lot more than you described to get me to go to the hellhole called LA.