A Major Exhibition of Funerary Art from Egypt

Abstract

It is always a notable occasion when exhibitions drawn from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo tour the United States, and for good reason. The fabulous treasures from the museum's galleries and storerooms hold an appeal for young and old alike. With more than 100 objects drawn from some of the most important excavations conducted in the late 19th and 20th centuries,1 The Quest for Immortality is touted as the largest exhibition ever to emerge from the Cairo Museum. In general, it does not disappoint. The exhibition was conceived by the Copenhagenbased United Exhibits Group (UEG) , in cooperation with Erik Hornung, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Basel. UEG promotes itself as Europe's largest and most successful privately owned museum exhibition developer and producer. The stated aim of its exhibitions is to establish, cultivate, and promote cultural heritages while also financially supporting the heritage of the loaning government or entity; indeed, Quest will generate substantial income for the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and will, among other things, help build a new museum in Giza. In recent years commercial traveling exhibitions like Quest have become increasingly popular, especially among mid-sized and small museums, because they reduce the costs and labor entailed in m unting exhibitions.2 For large museums that can afford the sometimes exorbitant participation fees, commercial services provide an avenue for hosting shows that, unfortunately, the public has come to expect from major museums. Commercial shows may achieve blockbuster status, but a number of recent Egyptian exhibitions organized in-house by museums have been equally successful.3 Today museums are paying closer attention to marketing strategies, catalogues that will appeal to the general public as well as to scholars, and exhibition design and programs that will both entertain and educate the visitor.