On-site｜Preview of cultural relics! Egyptian pharaoh statues and painted human-shaped coffins unveiled at the Shanghai Museum
On June 16, nearly 800 cultural relics from Egypt arrived in Shanghai by charter flight. They will meet with citizens and tourists at the "Top of the Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition" which will open in July.
On the afternoon of June 17, two of the cultural relics were first unpacked at the Shanghai Museum - the colossus of Akhenaten with a mysterious smile and a painted human-shaped coffin with a green face.
It is reported that this Egyptian cultural relics overseas exhibition brings together 492 groups of 788 precious cultural relics from different periods of ancient Egyptian civilization, including statues of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun, Amenemhat III and Ramses II, sets of mummy coffins, queen's gold ornaments, as well as the latest archaeological discoveries in the Saqqara area, such as painted wooden coffins, animal mummies and statues and other precious cultural relics.
These artifacts are selected from seven major Egyptian museums and the latest archaeological discoveries in the Saqqara region, and more than 95% of them are on display in Asia for the first time.
Zhao Cenrong, deputy director of the Shanghai Museum's Conservation Department, said that this was her first trip to Egypt to participate in the handover of cultural relics since she started working, and it was also the largest handover of cultural relics she had ever experienced. "We packed a total of 91 wooden crates, 90 of which were cultural relics, and the archives were packed in one of these crates, which were shipped together with the cultural relics."
The "Top of the Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Civilization" exhibition will open on July 18 at the Shanghai Museum's People's Square, and will be open to the public on July 19. The exhibition will last until August 17, 2025.
