[Giselle]

Has anybody been to the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 Dome in London? I've booked to see the First Emperor exhibition at the BM and I was thinking of going to see this too.

Did you think it was worth it? I've heard mixed opinions; apparently one paper described it as "Tut's tat". I just read the Guardian Unlimted's article about the exhibition when it was in America and they were a bit negative about it, although they did say it was still worth going.

[kuzbaslachek]

Haven't heard anything about this exhibition, but if it's free why not? Otherwise, there are far more notable Egyptian artifacts at the British Museum.

[TheLucyLee]

I went there during the end of November as part of my trip to England (your weather sucks BTW [thumbdown]) and having been to the British Museum a few days prior, the Tut exhibit was very underwhelming. Hell, even if I hadn't have gone to the British Museum, it was disappointing. I snuck a camera in a took a few bad pictures to give you an idea of what it was like that I can post later. Summery of it- a bunch of dark rooms with some Tut trinkets and more non-Tut Egyptian trinkets. The finale of the exhibit is a room with a bunch of videos playing about Tut and the people who found Tut's tomb.

And Sparafucil- it was not free. Though I got some sort of discount by buying tickets + a trip to the London Eye.

[Giselle]

No it's not free, it's quite expensive, £16.75 (including booking fee) for an adult, rising to £22 at weekends.

Anyway, thanks for the opinions, guys.

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

well the only other option is to go to Egypt to see tats collection of better tat.

Egypt's where its at matey its awesome

[Giselle]

Well I decided to go and went today. I enjoyed it, but I could see how some people might be disappointed. There's no death mask, just a coffinette that held his liver (beautiful though that is, and the object in all the ads), and it could seem as though there's not much there as the exhibits are well spaced out. Also only about a third of the objects are from Tut's tomb so that could be disappointing if you didn't know. Also they have none of the larger objects there. There is a sarcophagus but it's not his.

I'm glad I paid the extra and booked the audio guide. It was narrated by Omar Sherif.

I only paid £12 for the actual exhibition tickets (plus booking fee etc). because I went during the week and got a 20% discount because I went by train.

[daguy]

It doesn't surprise me to read that the Tutankhamun exhibition is seen as a bit iffy - the variable quality of temporary exhibits is a reoccuring problem with British museums. Many years ago, when I worked at the Liverpool Museum, we spent several months building up hype for the summer-long 'mega event' that was to be the 'interactive' dinosaur show; at that point, the museum had just gone from being totally free to charging a small fee, so coupled with the fact that the dino romp was going to cost the punters an extra £7.50, expectations were very high.

Had we marketed the whole thing as a comedy sketch, we might have got away with it, but alas, no - the dinosaurs were shite beyond belief (the animation sequences must have been taken from the 1930s) and one could walk through it all, see every stand and read every piece of text within ten minutes flat. I was so glad to be working on the top floor, well away from all the grief! Within a few weeks, the entry fee was dropped and the whole thing was moved on a month or so before it was due to.

Unfortunately many museum exhibits are ruined by the interference of marketing and 'education' executives - they either hype it up too much, cram in too much material (or not enough) or reduce the complexity of the event down to kindergarten level.

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

It doesn't surprise me to read that the Tutankhamun exhibition is seen as a bit iffy - the variable quality of temporary exhibits is a reoccuring problem with British museums. Many years ago, when I worked at the Liverpool Museum, we spent several months building up hype for the summer-long 'mega event' that was to be the 'interactive' dinosaur show; at that point, the museum had just gone from being totally free to charging a small fee, so coupled with the fact that the dino romp was going to cost the punters an extra £7.50, expectations were very high.

Had we marketed the whole thing as a comedy sketch, we might have got away with it, but alas, no - the dinosaurs were shite beyond belief (the animation sequences must have been taken from the 1930s) and one could walk through it all, see every stand and read every piece of text within ten minutes flat. I was so glad to be working on the top floor, well away from all the grief! Within a few weeks, the entry fee was dropped and the whole thing was moved on a month or so before it was due to.

Unfortunately many museum exhibits are ruined by the interference of marketing and 'education' executives - they either hype it up too much, cram in too much material (or not enough) or reduce the complexity of the event down to kindergarten level.

it don't help much when the papers did a close up shot of the mini death mask that's on display there a lot of people went thinking it was the full size one there

aparently theres gonna be another one soon.

Its gonna be called hatshepsut's s**t [rofl]

[Giselle]

it don't help much when the papers did a close up shot of the mini death mask that's on display there a lot of people went thinking it was the full size one there

I wouldn't lay all the blame with the newspapers. That image (of what looks like the death mask) is what's been used in all the advertising. That's why some people feel cheated, even though if you do a bit of reading they make it quite clear the death mask isn't in the exhibition.