Haven’t seen the King Tut Exhibit? Tut, Tut on you! Item Number: 100027 $0.00

DescriptionI’m taking a week off from my “travelogue “of Pre-Columbian cultures - not only is writing about PC far more daunting than I had ever expected, but this week I had a good excuse. My wife, Teresa, and son Alexander (the Great) and I had the opportunity to view the King Tut Exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. In a word – stunning!

King Tut has been touring Europe, Canada and the US since 2005. It hit our little burb last month and has been attracting huge crowds ever since. I find that fact almost surprising since our experience is that Coloradoans, for the most part, would not know a true antique, let alone antiquity, if it hit them squarely between the eyes. When one goes antique shopping in Denver, you pick through case after case of Barbie Dolls, Hot Wheels, GI Joes, 1960’s Japanese porcelain and basically junk – not even junque! While it is true I have found one or two ancient treasures in Colorado, it cannot compare to the treasure-hunting we would do all over New England, New York and especially Europe. But I digress…

While the King Tut exhibit is a very slick production – perhaps a wee bit too slick for my taste – it was simply one of the finest collections of ancient art we’ve had the pleasure of seeing. Showcasing over 100 Tut items, along with dozens of other important examples of ancient Egyptian art, one cannot leave the museum with anything less than a sense of complete awe.

Over the last 10 years I’ve had the pleasure of visiting some of the finest museums in the world, including The Met, Louvre, British Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Getty Villa, MFA Boston, a number of great museums in Athens, Cologne, Frankfurt, etc., and I am sure if you took a sample of some of their finest pieces you might experience what we were treated to in Denver. While the quantity was almost sparse, the quality of the items on display was off the scale.

There are 11 exhibit “halls” in this Tut exhibit, the first 5 of which contain statues – two in translucent alabaster that are to-die-for, crowns, gold masks, jewelry and objects d’art of pharaohs and their court from pharaohs other than Tut. Included are large painted limestone statues of seated figures, statues of Akhenaten with his distinctively alien-shaped head (proof positive that the aliens really did help with the pyramids!), Ramses II and Hatshepsut – perhaps the most powerful woman of ancient Egypt and one of the only 3 female pharaohs.

Entering the 6th hall, one is finally treated to the experience Howard Carter enjoyed 87 years ago. As Carter so simply, but eloquently stated, we saw beautiful things! Starting slowly, we see a wooden chair, a fine but small desk, a small wooden storage chest, a wooden model of a Nile barge, and one of the King’s beds. The fact that they still survive in such perfect condition 3000 years after his death is amazing. Then we begin to see things that go beyond beautiful, beyond amazing, to literally almost breathtaking… Alabaster vessels of such quality and complexity that modern sculptures would have a hard time equaling these artistic feats, gold necklaces and pectorals, ushabtis of every size, material and decorative style, scarabs the size of mice, a gold and ebony fan, amulets of varying size and subject matter, the gold finger and toe covers that actually covered the boy king in death, game board and glass headrest. The two highlights of my experience were the alabaster canopic jar lid carved in the likeness of Tut and the gold, colored glass and carnelian canopic “coffinette” that held Tut’s stomach as part of the embalming and mummification process. This coffinette may rank up there with seeing the Mona Lisa, the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, the birth of my children and the face of my darling wife each morning as THE highlights of my life!

The final piece of this magnificent exhibit is a monumental statue of the boy King, carved in granite, looking down upon you as you leave the final hall. Tut, much larger than life - and through art, much larger in death than the most powerful pharaoh, king or ruler the world has ever known…

Happy collecting – and happy art appreciation!
Bob Dodge