Early bird tickets for the Shanghai Museum's Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition are sold out! Is it rumored that Egypt moved cultural relics for war? That's ridiculous!
The Shanghai Museum's "Top of the Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Civilization" early bird tickets went on sale on May 20, and all 200,000 early bird tickets were sold out in just 30 days. At 17:00 yesterday afternoon, the Shanghai Museum opened reservations for visitors who purchased early bird tickets to visit the exhibition, and ordinary tickets went on sale at the same time.
Starting yesterday, visitors who have purchased early bird tickets can choose to make reservations for the visit date and session within 30 days from the opening date of the exhibition. That is, from yesterday, reservations can be made for the visit sessions from July 19 to August 18, and the reservation date can be postponed by one day. Today, the reporter opened the Shanghai Museum reservation applet and found that the reservations for the days before the opening of the exhibition were fully booked.
It is reported that after the early bird ticket reservation is successfully made, the ticket can be rescheduled three times, and can be rescheduled to all open days before December 31, 2024.
At the same time, the general tickets for the exhibition are on sale. From now until August 17, 2025, the tickets sold are non-refundable. Tickets will be sold through the Shanghai Museum's official WeChat applet, on-site ticket offices and Ctrip.com. In addition to the full-price ticket of 148 yuan, the exhibition also offers a variety of tickets at different prices, such as designated day tickets, discount tickets, and two sets of family tickets. Visitors can choose according to their own needs.
The exhibition will still offer discounts and free tickets. Family tickets are available for children under 14 years old and over 1.3 meters tall. Discount tickets are available for seniors over 60 years old, minors over 6 years old and under 18 years old, full-time undergraduate students and below, and active military personnel with valid certificates. Free tickets are available for children under 1.3 meters tall or under 6 years old, and disabled people with valid certificates.
Full-price tickets, designated-day tickets, discount tickets, and family tickets can be rescheduled twice after successful reservation. Full-price tickets, discount tickets, and family tickets can be rescheduled for all open days; designated-day tickets can only be rescheduled to a designated day; family tickets can be rescheduled as a whole package. The difference in full-price tickets will not be refunded for rescheduled designated days.
All visitors must make reservations with their real names, one ticket per person, and one reservation per ID card per day. Visitors who have successfully purchased tickets do not need to make additional reservations for the permanent exhibition hall on the day of the visit, and can visit both the permanent exhibition and the special exhibition with their original ID cards. After purchasing tickets, visitors with discount tickets must bring their original valid ID cards to the museum for inspection on the day of the purchase. Visitors who meet the free ticket conditions can make reservations for the visit and enter the museum with their original valid ID cards.
"Top of the Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition" brings together 492 groups of 788 precious cultural relics from different periods of ancient Egyptian civilization. As the world's largest and Asia's highest-level exhibition of ancient Egyptian cultural relics abroad, the exhibition has attracted much attention and also attracted some people to "take advantage of the traffic". Recently, some marketing accounts combined the news that the exhibition relics were transported to Shanghai with the current international situation, saying that "Egypt moved 788 national treasures to China for exhibition, perhaps to cope with the tense situation between Palestine and Israel and to protect cultural treasures from the threat of war." Some marketing accounts even claimed that the war was imminent and Egypt's move was to "entrust" the cultural relics.
The reporter learned from relevant parties that such claims are untrue. This exhibition is the fourth exhibition in the Shanghai Museum's brand exhibition series "Dialogue with the World" cultural relics and art exhibition series. Previously, the Shanghai Museum has cooperated with museums, art galleries and collection institutions in many countries and regions such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and France, and has obtained support from relevant government departments. According to industry insiders, the preparation cycle of museum special exhibitions is often measured in years. The preparation of this ancient Egyptian civilization exhibition began more than two years ago, and this round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out in October last year.
Some marketing accounts wrote that "the Syrian government has shipped nearly 200 of its best collections from nine major museums in the country to China... for cyclical exhibition," and Egypt will also adopt the same approach this time. In fact, this ancient Egyptian civilization exhibition will only have one stop in the world, the Shanghai Museum, and will not be a traveling exhibition.
In the articles of these marketing accounts, the normal transportation of exhibition cultural relics was called "moving-style transfer" and "large-scale transfer" to prove that "as the situation worsened, Egypt transferred its national treasures to the relatively safe China to ensure that these priceless treasures were not threatened by war."
This exhibition will display as many as 788 ancient Egyptian artifacts. Although the number is almost three times that of ordinary special exhibitions, it is still just a drop in the ocean compared to the large number of artifacts left by ancient Egyptian civilization. Take the "green-faced" painted coffin that has been unearthed in the Shanghai Museum for example. This artifact was unearthed in the ruins of the Saqqara Cat Temple in recent years, and nearly a thousand human-shaped coffins were unearthed in the Saqqara catacombs during the same period.
Previously, some tourists took pictures of cultural relics being checked and packed at the Egyptian National Museum, which were used by these marketing accounts to claim that cultural relics were being transferred to China in large quantities. The reporter learned from some tourists who recently traveled in Egypt that although some cultural relics exhibition places did indicate that the cultural relics were going on a "business trip" to Shanghai, a large number of important cultural relics in the Egyptian National Museum, including Tutankhamun's golden mask, were still on display normally and were very popular.
In addition, according to the staff who went to Egypt to participate in the inspection of cultural relics for this exhibition, Egyptian archaeologists and international joint archaeological teams at the Saqqara archaeological site are working normally, but outdoor work has been suspended due to the recent high temperatures in Egypt. Previously, the Shanghai Museum also revealed that in addition to the exhibition, further cooperation will be carried out in archaeological excavation, cultural relics protection, personnel exchanges and other aspects in the future.
