Ancient Egypt Exhibitions Continue to Draw Crowds

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Ancient Egypt Exhibitions Continue to Draw Crowds

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Panorama of the Great Sphinx of Giza, Khafre's Pyramid and Pyramid of Cheops. License

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recently opened Dive Egypt exhibition is the latest in a long line of shows centered on ancient Egyptian art to draw massive crowds and fanfare. A centuries-old fascination with the pharaohs, colloquially termed Egyptomania, has swept through the United States numerous times and almost guarantees a well-attended exhibit among museums.

This might be why four others aside from the Met are currently presenting their own take on the ancient civilization: the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East in Cambridge with Egypt Eternal: 4,000 Years of Fascination; the Getty Villa in Los Angeles with Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt; the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore with Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt; and the Fralin Museum of Art in Charlottesville with The World Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa. Even permanent collections of ancient Egyptian art, such as those at the Brooklyn Museum and the Met, regularly see more foot traffic than other offerings.

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Wedgwood Rosso Antico sugar bowl with Egyptian-inspired motifs, c. 1810. License.

This gravitation towards the golden objects and mystery-laden pyramids of Egypt is nothing new. Ancient Romans began collecting and copying Egyptian art soon after Emperor Augustus conquered parts of Northern Africa in 31 BCE. When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1798 and his soldiers discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799, Europeans took up the fascination by incorporating ancient Egyptian motifs into everything from ceramics and silver to furniture. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in England began making red stoneware decorated with black hieroglyphs. Across the pond, Reed & Barton in Massachusetts produced a five-piece “Egyptian Revival” silver-plated tea set, while Boston & Sandwich Glass Company sold glass butter dishes showing the pyramids of Giza. Egyptian ornament was later incorporated into the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 30s.

Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 sparked another swell of Egyptomania, which peaked in the United States when 55 objects from the burial toured the country between November 1976 and April 1979. The traveling exhibition was part of President Nixon’s effort to reforge political ties with Egypt. Per a culture clause in the Principles of Relations and Cooperation, the U.S. would help reconstruct Cairo’s opera house, and Egypt would send select King Tut objects to America.

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King Tutankhamun’s burial mask. License.

The resulting Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition began at the National Gallery in D.C. before relocating to Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, New Orleans Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Seattle Center’s Flag Pavilion, and finally the Met. Securing tickets for the New York City exhibition required waiting in a line that stretched up to 21 blocks long at times. Out-of-town visitors added $110 million to the local economy during the show’s four-month run.

Despite being the Met’s first major Egyptian exhibition in more than 10 years, Divine Egypt is unlikely to generate a significant economic boost. Museum leadership is nonetheless likely to be eyeing a surge in ticket sales and memberships following a slower fundraising season. The power ancient Egypt continues to hold on contemporary audiences remains as strong as it did centuries ago, capitalizing on a curiosity about kings treated like gods and buried with unimaginable riches.