King Tut too pricey for Australia

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs will not tour Australia because museums cannot afford it.

The director of the Australian Museum, Frank Howarth, said the show’s $10 million price tag and its size were too big for Australian institutions to handle.

Since opening at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2005, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, which is co-produced by the National Geographic Society, has attracted more than 6 million visitors and earned more than $US110 million in sales.

Greater Los Angeles has almost 20 million people within 1.5 hours’ drive of the show, nearly as much as as Australia’s entire population.

The Australian Museum is exhibiting Egyptian Treasures: Art of the Pharaohs, from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Austria. By contrast, it cost about $1.5 million.

The Sydney Morning Herald

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Tags: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Exhibitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.