King Tut to make triumphal return to San Francisco after 30 years

SAN FRANCISCO -- Thirty years to the month after King Tut first took San Francisco by storm, antiquity's most famous monarch will attempt to reprise the feat.

The San Francisco Fine Arts Museums announced today that the touring exhibit "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" will open at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park June 27, 2009, for a nine-month stay, through March 2010.

The exhibit, which features more than 130 artifacts from the 18th Dynasty king's opulently appointed tomb and other ancient Egyptian sites, is expected to be a blockbuster. Museum officials hope to exceed the 1 million visitor mark set by "Treasures of Tutankhamun" in its 1979 engagement of four months at the old de Young.

"I am very excited about this," said Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan by telephone from Williamsburg, Va. "The ongoing fascination with Egyptian antiquities speaks to the search for our own roots and origins. It's thrilling to be able to share these objects with people of all ages who have never had the opportunity to see them."

Every piece in the show is at least 3,300 years old. Many of them never traveled outside of Egypt before this tour. They document the life, times and postmortem enshrinement of the "boy king" who died, at age 18 or 19, in 1323 B.C., nine years into his reign.

About 50 of the pieces come from Tut's remarkably well-preserved tomb, including 12 that were seen in the 1979 show. Highlights include a gold crown found on the head of his mummified form, a lavish bejeweled pectoral inscribed with the hieroglyphic for infinity, and a pair of coffinettes that contain the fetuses of what may have been the king's children. DNA research on that question is under way. The famous gold mask of Tutankhamun, a centerpiece of the '79 show, is not included this time around. Among the reasons it doesn't travel anymore are high insurance rates.

More than 70 pieces, in stone, wood and faience, come from other burial sites.

A set of 38 prints by photographer Harry Burton chronicles British archaeologist Howard Carter's celebrated 1922 expedition that unearthed the Tutankhamun tomb.

The Tut "Golden Age" exhibit, a joint venture of National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International, and AEG Exhibitions, in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, premiered in Los Angeles in 2005. It went on to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chicago, Philadelphia and London. The show opened over the weekend in Dallas, where it will remain until moving to San Francisco.

Attendance has been strong along the way, accompanied by some grumbling about ticket prices and other issues. When "Golden Age" opened in Los Angeles in 2005, tickets were $30. Protesters in Philadelphia demonstrated on at least three occasions about the show's promotional images of Tut, which, they claimed, altered his skin color and African features to appear more like those of an Arab or Caucasian.

Ticket prices and policies for the upcoming San Francisco run have not been established.

More than twice as large as the 55-object "Treasures of Tutankhamun" from the 1970s, this show seeks to place Tut in a richer historical and social context. "As fantastic and spectacular as the '79 show was," said Renie Dreyfus, curator in charge of ancient art and interpretation for the Fine Arts Museums, "you didn't have a clear idea of where Tut fit in time and how he got to be where he was, even though he died at such a tender age. There was much less of an educational thrust. It was more about the splendor and beauty of the objects." She called the first Tut exhibit "the mother of all blockbusters."

Dreyfus, who worked on the original "Treasures" show in San Francisco, has used her experience on that and other Egyptian projects to help refine the "Golden Age" experience. After seeing this exhibit in Philadelphia, she initiated changes in both the catalog and wall labels. Omar Sharif is the voice of the current guide.

Returning to Tut after 30 years has a special significance, Dreyfus added. "The ancient Egyptians had what they called a sed festival after a king had ruled for 30 years. It was meant to rejuvenate him and build up his powers."

(E-mail Steven Winn at swinn(at)sfchronicle.com.)

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