Completing the chain of inaugurating exhibitions showcasing Egyptian relics, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany launched on Sunday The King Tut Exhibition in Los Angeles, California, according to a press release on the Ministry of Antiquities’ official Facebook page.
The opening was attended by Egypt’s Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass, alongside Egyptian Consul General in California Lamia Mekhemar and several other public figures and officials.
The exhibition showcases 166 objects belonging to Tutankhamun, which were transferred from the The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, including alabaster pots, wooden boxes, and statues of the pharaoh.
El-Anany expressed his happiness with the exhibition, explaining that it is part of a new policy of organising exhibitions in foreign countries.
In his speech, El-Anany asserted that there is a love story between the young pharaoh and the American nation, and especially the people of Los Angeles, explaining that this is not the first time the ancient king’s belongings visit the US.
“The first visit for Tutankhamun’s gems outside Egypt was in 1961, to the United States, where it travelled the different states for four years,” El-Anany said, highlighting that this is the fourth exhibit in California after three previous visits in 1962, 1978, and 2005.
“Today, the king comes to the city of angels carrying a message of peace from the Egyptian nation to Americans, representing the beauty and fascinations of the ancient Egyptian civilisation and how it was built with love, peace, knowledge, art, faith, and excitement,” he added in his speech.
According to the museum, all of the 3,500 tickets for the first day of the exhibition were sold out, which led the museum to extend its opening for three additional hours after the official working hours, as regulations forbid hosting more than 100 persons inside the museum at a time.
The first exhibition showcasing Egyptian artefacts in a foreign country, as part of the new policy, kicked off in Toronto, Canada this month, displaying the heritage and monuments of the Egyptian Fatimid era, and another displaying the artefacts of the cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, which were discovered under water after being lost for 1,000 years before they were found accidentally, while a third exhibition will soon be inaugurated for jewellery from ancient Egyptian eras.
El-Anany invited people to see the other Tutankhamun relics, around 5,000 of them, on show at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
