The 'King of Bling'

June 10, 2005 — -- He is a 3,000-year-old celebrity who got a new promoter this year and is expected to set box office records on a 27-month tour of U.S. cities. He did it once before, and became a cultural phenomenon.

Between 1976 and 1979, more than 8 million Americans visited the museums that displayed "The Treasures of Tutankhamun" -- priceless objects from the tomb of an Egyptian boy pharaoh, nicknamed King Tut, that for the first time had people attaching the word "blockbuster" to a museum exhibit.

On June 16, a new exhibit, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," will open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Over the next two years, the exhibit will visit museums in three other cities -- Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Chicago; and Philadelphia.

The '70s tour created a frenzy because people wanted to see "these utterly impeccable objects … that looked like they were made two days ago," said Tom Hoving, who headed the team that organized the groundbreaking exhibit. Hoving was then director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is also the author of the book, "Tutankhamun: The Untold Story."

"It was like people could almost reach out and shake the hand of a bygone civilization," Hoving said.

The reason the objects are so well-preserved, of course, is that Tut's tomb escaped centuries of looting and desecration because it was obscured by construction for another pharaoh, and Tutankhamun was largely forgotten. In 1922, the discovery of the intact burial chamber by Howard Carter, the English Egyptologist, created a worldwide sensation, even though Tutankhamun was only a minor king.

"We know nothing about him," said Hoving. "There's not a line of hieroglyphs found in the tomb. No histories. No nothing. Zero. But who cares? This stuff is gorgeous. Unparalleled. When you look at it, you're moved to another realm."

That journey to another realm will come at an additional cost to those who view the new exhibit. Because of financial guarantees to the Egyptian government and the recruitment of middlemen as sponsors to cover the burden of financing, the LA County Museum will charge as much as $30 for admission to the exhibit. One of the companies involved with the museum show, AEG LIVE Exhibitions, also has experience promoting rock and sports stars.