King Tut returns, but at a price too high for the New York Met

[emad]

The Independent

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
03 December 2004


King Tut is coming back to America. But this time he will cost - so much indeed that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, doyen of US museums which hosted the first Treasures of Tutankhamun show in 1978, is having nothing to do with the follow-up.

The new show about the boy ruler who died, possibly at the hand of a murderer, in 1323bc, is entitled Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. It will open in Los Angeles in June before moving on to Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The 1978 show marked the start of the era of blockbuster exhibitions which continues today. But although 1.2 million visitors flocked to the Met in what was a cultural phenomenon of the age, neither the museum nor the Egyptian government made a profit, as the Met stuck to a policy of not charging extra for special exhibits.

The land of the pharaohs is taking no such chances in 2004. Egypt wants $10m (£5.2m) profit from every city where the exhibition shows, so organisation of the visit has been handed over to the Anshutz Entertainment Group, which runs sports arenas and other for-profit businesses. As a result, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be charging $30 a ticket, compared to its usual $9. The Met would have had to raise its "suggested" admission to at least $25 from the current $12. It refused to do so.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=589234

[derby378]

1. There's another side to the $30 ticket price

Some of the proceeds will go into the hands of Zavi Hawass, one of Egypt's foremost curators and archeologists. That helps take the edge off the sticker shock. This is a guy who seems truly committed to preserving and restoring Egypt's artifacts and sites.

[peekaloo]

2. now I have that Steve Martin song stuck in my head.

"if he'd known, they'd line up just to see him, he'd taken all his money and bought him a museum".