A coming Hong Kong Palace Museum exhibition displaying Egyptian relics, including a Tutankhamen statue and feline mummies, is just the beginning of plans for further collaborations and events, the custodian of the African nation’s treasures has said.
Dr Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, also told the Post that it would not rule out displaying other notable artefacts and mummies in Hong Kong.
The council and the museum, located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, earlier signed an agreement to host the city’s largest and longest-running exhibition of artefacts from the country, with 250 exhibits to go on display from November 20.
The event, titled “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums”, will run until August 31, 2026.
The agreement has paved the way for the first collaboration between a Hong Kong museum and the Supreme Council of Antiquities, with both sides describing the move as the starting point for more joint efforts.
“We were discussing today [about] future collaborations from different themes and also different artefacts that will be allowed to travel [from Egypt], or maybe new discoveries,” he said on Thursday.
One idea that Khaled mentioned was holding an exhibition based on Islamic art available in Egypt, including artefacts from countries such as Iran and Turkey. He added that the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo had one of the world’s largest collections of such items.
“We are speaking about everything, we are open to everything, in order to do collaboration,” he said.
Khaled also said he would not rule out the possibility that notable artefacts and mummies could go on display in Hong Kong.
He attributed the council’s decision to work with the museum to China and Egypt’s close diplomatic relationship.
Another reason was that the Hong Kong Palace Museum was seen as a “rising star” among its local counterparts, he added.
“That’s why we thought it would be nice to show the Egyptian artefacts here in Hong Kong, to [allow] more people to know more about ancient Egyptian civilisation and also to receive, in return, in the future, some visitors from Hong Kong and from China to visit Egypt and see everything in reality, to visit the temples, the tombs,” he said.
Khaled also shared his top four must-see exhibits among those set to go on display at the museum.
The list comprises a large statue of Pharaoh Tutankhamen standing more than 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) tall, a series of anthropoid coffins, a statue of the ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet holding a sistrum, and a collection of mummified cats.
Khaled said the artefacts conveyed the thinking and spiritual beliefs of ancient Egyptians and showed people in Hong Kong and mainland China that his country had more to offer beyond its iconic pyramids.