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Egypt on Display

February 27, 2019

A new Penn Museum exhibition showcases 200 artifacts from its vast Egyptian collection, as well as their conservation, including a 4,000-year-old model of a rowing boat featuring 16 figures.

A new Penn Museum exhibition showcases 200 artifacts from its vast Egyptian collection, as well as their conservation, including a 4,000-year-old model of a rowing boat featuring 16 figures.

from Penn Today

While parts of the Egypt Gallery are closed for renovation, the Penn Museum is opening a new exhibition to display artifacts from its vast Egyptian collection, and to highlight the importance of conservation and storage practices.

“Ancient Egypt: From Discovery to Display” includes more than 200 objects, some on view for the first time, in a 6,000-square-foot exhibition in three rooms on the third floor. An innovative “visible storage” section—the only Philadelphia museum to have one—provides a showcase as the artifacts go through conservation in the adjacent Artifact Lab.

The 200 objects included in the new exhibition were chosen from the more than 50,000 Egyptian artifacts in the Museum's collection. Julian Siggers (right) is director of the Museum, with Dan Rahimi, executive director of galleries.
The 200 objects included in the new exhibition were chosen from the more than 50,000 Egyptian artifacts in the Museum’s collection. Julian Siggers (right) is director of the Museum, with Dan Rahimi, executive director of galleries.

“You very rarely get to see an exhibition as it unfolds,” said Julian Siggers, Museum director, at a preview before the public opening on Saturday, Feb. 23.

“We wanted visitors to share in the journey from excavation to exhibition, to experience not only the wonders of ancient Egypt,” he said, “but also to share in the history of how these incredible objects came to Museum in the first place, and the skill and expertise involved in the efforts to preserve them.”

The Egyptian collection includes more than 50,000 objects from ancient Egypt, most of them found by Penn archaeologists.

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation

John McInerney (he/him)
Executive Director
215-573-0874
mcinernj@upenn.edu

Chloe Reison (she/her)
Associate Director
215-573-2159
reison@upenn.edu

Elizabeth Shaw (she/her)
Administrative Assistant
215-898-5930
elizshaw@upenn.edu

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation offices are located at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Philadelphia PA

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