SF Museum Alert

King Tut to make triumphal return to S.F.

The San Francisco Fine Arts Museums announced today that the touring exhibit "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" will open at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park June 27, 2009, for a nine-month stay, through March 28, 2010.

Yes the King Tut exhibit was exhibited in SF at the De Young thirty years ago. I remember going to that exhibit, I was 10 and I was thoroughly amazed and enamored. So of course I'll be going there again! Add the King Tut exhibit along with the anticipated Yves Saint Laurent exhibit coming and I might just need to become a member again!

Here is some of the article in the SF newspaper:

The Tut "Golden Age" exhibit, a joint venture of National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, premiered in Los Angeles in 2005. It went on to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chicago, Philadelphia and London. The show opened over the weekend in Dallas, where it will remain until moving to San Francisco.

Attendance has been strong along the way, accompanied by some grumbling about ticket prices and other issues. When "Golden Age" opened in Los Angeles in 2005, tickets were $30. "I'm not sure there's much difference between Tutankhamun and Celine Dion," presenter Tim Leiweke told USA Today at the time. Protesters in Philadelphia demonstrated on at least three occasions about the show's promotional images of Tut, which, they claimed, altered his skin color and African features to appear more like those of an Arab or Caucasian.

More than twice as large as the 55-object "Treasures of Tutankhamun" from the 1970s, this show seeks to place Tut in a richer historical and social context. "As fantastic and spectacular as the '79 show was," said Renée Dreyfus, curator in charge of ancient art and interpretation for the Fine Arts Museums, "you didn't have a clear idea of where Tut fit in time and how he got to be where he was, even though he died at such a tender age. There was much less of an educational thrust. It was more about the splendor and beauty of the objects." She called the first Tut exhibit "the mother of all blockbusters."

Buchanan said he hopes to attract new audiences and new members to the de Young with "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." Sustained interest in the reborn California Academy of Sciences figures to attract more people and potential patrons to the Golden Gate museum complex while Tut is in town.

Okay, my work here is done.... lunch is over