Archaeological Museum of Bologna

16 October 2015 – 17 July 2016

Egypt. Millennia of Splendour

Masterpieces from Leiden to Bologna

In October, Bologna will become the capital of ancient Egypt.

From 16 October 2015 to 17 July 2016, the Museo Civico Archeologico will be hosting Egypt. Millennia of Splendour, an exhibition produced by the City of Bologna | Istituzione Bologna Musei | Museo Civico Archeologico and the Arthemisia Group and curated by Paola Giovetti, director of the museum, and Daniela Picchi, curator of the Egyptian collection.

Beneath the two towers, the splendour of a civilisation that lasted thousands of years and has always fascinated the entire world, will spring back to life: the Egypt of the pyramids, pharaohs and multiform gods, but also that of sensational discoveries, captivating archaeology, passionate collecting and rigorous scholarship.

The exhibition ‘Egypt’, which will be held at the Museo Civico Archeologico in Bologna, will not just be an exposition of high visual and scientific impact, but also an unprecedented international enterprise: the Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands – among the top ten in the world – and that of the Bologna museum – among the most important in Italy for the quantity, quality and state of conservation of its collections – will be brought together in an exhibition space measuring around 1,700 metres, filled with art and history.

500 finds, dating from the Pre-Dynastic Period to the Roman Period, will be brought from the Netherlands to the Bologna museum.

And, together with the masterpieces from Leiden and Bologna, the exhibition will also include important loans from the Museo Egizio in Turin and the Museo Egizio in Florence, creating a network of the most important Italian museums.

For the first time, the masterpieces of the two collections will be displayed side by side, including the Stele of Aku (Twelfth–Thirteenth Dynasty, 1976–1648 BC), the ‘major domo of the divine offering’, with a prayer describing the otherworldly existence of the deceased in a tripartite world divided into sky, earth and the beyond; gold items attributed to General Djehuty, who led the Egyptian troops to victory in the Near East for the great conqueror Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC); the statues of Maya, superintendent of the royal treasury of Tutankhamen, and Merit, a chantress of the god Amun, (Eighteenth Dynasty, reigns of Tutankhamen and Horemheb, 1333–1292 BC), the most important masterpieces in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden and which will be leaving the Netherlands for the first time for the Bologna exhibition; and, among the numerous objects attesting to the refined lifestyle of the most wealthy Egyptians, a Mirror Handle (1292 BC) in the shape of a young woman holding a small bird in her hand.

Lastly, for the first time 200 years after the discovery of his tomb in Saqqara, the exhibition will offer the unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the important Reliefs of Horemheb reunited: Horemheb was the head commander of the Egyptian army during the reign of Tutankhamen, then rising to become the final sovereign of the Eighteenth Dynasty, from 1319 to 1292 BC and the reliefs are divided between the collections in Leiden, Bologna and Florence.

Thousands of years of the history of a unique civilisation revealed in a major exhibition that brings together masterpieces from important world collections and tells of the pyramids and pharaohs, the great captains and priests, the gods and other divinities, and the people that made Egyptian history and that, thanks to discoveries, archaeology and collecting, never stop enchanting, revealing, intriguing, fascinating and charming generation after generation.

WHEN

From 16 October 2015 to 17 July 2016

OPENING TIMES
Tuesday - Thursday: 9 am - 6.30 pm.
Friday: 9 am - 10 pm
Saturday – Sunday and holidays: 10 am – 6.30 pm
closed: Mondays (except holidays), New Year’s Day, 1^st May, Christmas Day.

ENTRANCE
Full - € 13 (admission to Egyptian Area + Exhibit Room + Archeological Museum)

Reduced rate - € 11 (special agreements, University students, groups of 15 people, over 65, Card Musei Metropolitani Bologna)

Reduced rate for groups - € 11

Single student - € 6 (6 up to 18)

Schools - € 5

Family group € 28 (2 adults and max. 3 chidren from 6 to 18 years old)

Free (children up to 6, 2 tutors for school groups, 1 leader for organized group, 1 helper for disabled people)

All the kinds of tickets, except the "school group", entitle to receive a free audioguide

INFO and pre-sale

Phone: +39 051 0301043

WEBSITE

www.mostraegitto.it