The Hong Kong Palace Museum has signed a historic agreement with Egypt鈥檚 custodian of its heritage to host the city鈥檚 largest and longest-running exhibition of artefacts from the African nation, with 250 exhibits on display this November.
The exhibition 鈥淎ncient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums鈥 will run for nine months starting from November 20 at the museum in West Kowloon Cultural District. It will feature items such as a more than 2.8-metre (9.2-foot) tall statue of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, mummified cats, coffins and canopic jars.
The agreement signed with Egypt鈥檚 Supreme Council of Antiquities, marks the first time that a Hong Kong museum has collaborated with the country鈥檚 Supreme Council of Antiquities, with both sides describing the move as the starting point of future collaborations.
鈥淭his is the longest and the largest Egyptian exhibition that [is] organised in Hong Kong,鈥 said Hong Kong Palace Museum director Louis Ng Chi-wa.
鈥淲ith these nine [months], we hope to attract many people to come to Hong Kong to see [or] to view the treasures of Egyptian ancient culture. And also to understand more about our friendship [between Egypt and China].鈥
Ng expects that the exhibition will be 鈥渧ery, very popular鈥 and may draw between 600,000 and 700,000 attendees during its run.
The director said that he expected the visitor profile for the event would be similar to their usual profile, with about 30 per cent being local visitors, more than 50 per cent from mainland China and the remaining 20 per cent from elsewhere in Asia.
Dr Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary general of Egypt鈥檚 Supreme Council of Antiquities, said he expected the exhibition would draw more than 700,000 visitors, noting they originally expected only 1 million attendees for the exhibition 鈥淥n Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt鈥 in Shanghai, but had received more than 2 million before the end of the event鈥檚 run in August.
The palace museum, collaborating with the Shanghai Museum for its November exhibition, would receive the 鈥渂est鈥 250 exhibits out of the 787 being displayed in Shanghai.
鈥淭he Hong Kong exhibition is a selection of a selection, it is the cr猫me de la cr猫me,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t is really like they are selecting the best artefacts that they displayed in Shanghai but also with a new approach, they are creating a new display, a new approach to this wonderful story, making a kind of untold stories.鈥
While the museum has not yet announced ticket prices for the exhibition, Ng said that they would be 鈥渁ffordable鈥 for the general public.
Other highlights from the exhibition include a seated statue of the deity Anubis and a statue of the goddess Bastet.
According to the organisers, the collection of the artefacts comes from seven major museums in Egypt, including the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum of the Ancient Egyptian Art, and the Suez National Museum.
Recent discoveries from Saqqara, the vast necropolis of the ancient capital Memphis located south of Cairo, will also be exhibited.