TUTMANIA II NEW EXHIBIT OF EGYPT'S BOY KING IS BIGGER AND GLITZIER.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

What is it about Tut that makes hard-core museum-goers and the arts-indifferent alike shell out a mini king's ransom to see his stash?

Theories abound.

There's the mystery of the boy king (born around 1350 B.C., lived to be 19 years old), the history, curses and legends - some of it true, much of it simply a great yarn (or the subject of a Steve Martin ditty).

There's the lore of Tut tomb discoverer Howard Carter, the British archaeologist who had all but reached the end of his funding when he happened upon the find of a lifetime.

There's the not-so-distant memory of ``The Treasures of Tutankhamun,'' a traveling, line-forming, ``must see'' exhibition that buzzed through the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978, thereby inaugurating the blockbuster exhibit. The price tag is even higher for ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,'' opening today at LACMA, but exhibition organizers will remind you that a trip to Cairo would set you back even more. There's our fascination with all things ancient and Egyptian, mummies in particular. Somewhat coincidentally, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana is in the midst of its own exhibition, ``Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt - Treasures From the British Museum.''

And of course, with Tut, there's the lure of shiny, sparkly objects unearthed from the ground.

``The amount of precious material draws us on a level of visceral desire,'' says Kathlyn Cooney, co-curator of ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,'' which runs through Nov. 15 at LACMA. ``There's a lot of gold and a lot of jewels.''

Yes, Tut is back - loot in tow - and this time he's bringing family. Of the 130 items on display, more than half come not from Tut's tomb but from the royal graves of the 18th Dynasty (1555 B.C. to 1305 B.C.). Tutankhamun items on display include the golden crown (royal diadem) that the boy king wore, a coffinette that held his liver, a golden ceremonial dagger and falcon collar. The now-iconic golden mask that traveled the first time will not be part of the current exhibition, as it would have added unwieldy travel and insurance costs to the exhibition.

Of the 50 Tut treasures arriving with the new show, 12 were included in the ``Treasures'' exhibition, causing museum officials to bristle over claims that LACMA is merely displaying a watered down ``Tut, Part 2.''

The non-Tut trove comes from the graves of pharaohs Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and from the graves of Tutankhamun's great grandparents, Yuya and Tjuya, whose treasures are leaving Cairo for the first time. Yuya and Tjuya's tomb had been the most celebrated historical find within the Valley of the Kings until the discovery of Tut's resting place in 1922. All the items in the exhibit are between 3,300 and 3,500 years old.

The exhibition looks to place Tut's life - and wealth - in a historical context. Historians and curators can actually do this because of the amount of material Tut's tomb yielded.

``His was the only intact New Kingdom tomb ever found - and will probably ever be found,'' says Cooney. ``If you look at something from the tomb of Ramses II, which was looted in antiquity, look at a piece stripped of its gold and inlay that tomb robbers have left behind. Compare that piece with a piece from the tomb of Tut, and you'll get a better idea of what would have been in the royal tombs.''

The gilded funerary mask and coffin of Tjuya and some ornate shabti servant figurines also figure to be impressive ... provided visitors actually take the time to look at them.

``It's wonderful material, and hopefully it won't get overlooked as they try to get to Tut,'' says Cooney. ``The rest of the exhibition is meant to educate viewers and build up knowledge before they get to the Tut material.''

Using forensic techniques unavailable when ``The Treasures of Tutankhamun'' toured America from 1976 to 1979, the current exhibition also boasts a CT scan of Tut's mummy, designed to give viewers some perspective into the boy king's physical appearance and hypothesize as to the cause of his death. Similar CT scans will be performed on several Egyptian mummies as part of a five-year Egyptian research and conservation project.

``Here was this 19-year-old who had died suddenly. We knew he was surrounded by advisers, two of whom became Pharaoh after he died. Circumstantial evidence points had led us to believe he may have been murdered,'' says Terry Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs at National Geographic. ``One of the reasons for conducting the CT scan was to see if we could determine, in fact, how he had died and to answer other questions about his general health and age.''

The CT scan and forensic evidence, on display in its own gallery at the end of the exhibit, will essentially take viewers through a virtual autopsy of Tut and view the reconstruction of the young king's face. Through the scan, researchers have concluded that the much-discussed blow to the head is probably not what killed Tutankhamun (possibly discounting a theory he was murdered) but that he had suffered a severe leg fracture, which might have become infected.

The reconstruction of Tut's face, via three busts configured from his corpse, has also drawn disagreement recently. African-American advocates have protested that the busts depict Tut as being white and have asked for their removal from the exhibition (see accompanying story).

It's the most recent of controversies that have trailed Tut's return journey to the United States. Museum administrators across the country have balked at the $25 to $30 that hosting museums will charge for admission. ``Tutankhamun'' is a co-presentation by National Geographic, Philip Anschutz's AEG Exhibitions, and Arts and Exhibitions International. A significant portion of the exhibit's proceeds will help fund the construction of a new Grand Museum in Cairo.

But if Tut watchers are grumbling, they're also pulling out their credit cards. Nearly 300,000 tickets have already been bought up in advance.

By comparison, the popular ``Van Gogh's Van Goghs'' exhibit that visited LACMA in 1999 sold fewer than 30,000 advance tickets, according to John Norman, Arts and Exhibitions International president and CEO.

``As soon as somebody thinks about what you would compare this to - $25 compared to seeing a baseball or a basketball game - it's a totally different experience,'' says Norman. ``Unfortunately, with the economics with Egypt and their demands to be paid a tremendous amount for these objects to leave, the end result is it has to have this kind of ticket price to make it happen.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

Boy king's skin color a topic of controversy

Nobody can be sure exactly what the boy king Tutankhamun looked like. But a group of African-American activists charting the ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs'' exhibition are certain of one thing: He didn't look white.

Following an appearance before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, activists from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Committee for the Elimination of Media Offensive to African People, and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations plan to protest the Tut exhibition, which opens today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

They claim a trio of busts configured from Tut's corpse and a CT scan depict the ruler as being white, and are, therefore, inaccurate and racist.

``Those images are so critical for our children,'' says Legrand Clegg, Compton city attorney and a spokesman for the protesters. ``We want them to focus not just on rappers, athletes and entertainers but on figures who are high achievers. What could be more elevating than a little boy who ruled the world?''

Three separate teams of researchers reviewing the data from the mummified corpse have concluded that Tutankhamun, who was part of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, was a Caucasoid North African. Clegg contends these conclusions fly in the face of separate research by a New Zealand and British research team that label Tut Negroid.

``The big variable is skin tone,'' says Terry Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs for National Geographic, one of the exhibition's presenters. ``North Africans, we know today, had a range of skin tones, from light to dark. In this case, we selected a medium skin tone, and we say, quite up front, 'This is midrange.' We'll never know for sure what his exact skin tone was or the color of his eyes with 100 percent certainty.

``Maybe in the future, people will come to a different conclusion,'' Garcia continues. ``From what we know, there is no doubt this individual was of North African descent.''

That's not good enough for the activists, who demonstrated peacefully before an opening reception Wednesday and planned to protest again at today's opening.

``All we're asking,'' says Clegg, ``is removal of those impostor busts, which have nothing to do with relics.

THEN

``Treasures of Tutankhamun''

Feb. 15 to June 15, 1978

Attendance: 1,250,629

Ticket price: $2 (about $6 today)

Items on display: 55 artifacts, including the boy-king's solid gold funeral mask, a gilded wood figure of the goddess Selket, lamps, jars, jewelry, furniture and other objects for the afterlife.

NOW

``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs''

June 16 to Nov. 15, 2005

Attendance: Nearly 300,000 advance tickets sold

Ticket price: $15-$30.

Items on display: 130 artifacts from the tombs of Tut and other pharaohs of the 18th dynasty, including the golden diadem, viscera coffin, canopic bust, prestigious dagger, falcon collar, wooden mirror case and luxurious fan. Among the items that are returning from the 1978 exhibit are a small statue shrine, a mirror in the form of an ankh, a chest with poles and a lotus blossom cup.

TUTANKHAMUN AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE PHARAOHS

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

When: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily; through Nov. 15.

Tickets: $15 to $30. [phone]; www.ticketmaster.com; www.kingtut.org; www.lacma.org.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Visitors to ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,'' opening today at LACMA, will find themselves in this entry hall, left. Among the exhibit's antiquities is Tutankhamun's headdress, above, which represents a goddess that spit fire at the boy king's enemies

(3 -- color) This coffin of Tut's great-grandparent Tjuya, unearthed in the Valley of the Kings, leaves Cairo for the first time to be part of the LACMA exhibit. Nearly 300,000 tickets have already been sold.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(4) no caption (King Tut)

Kenneth Garrett

National Geographic magazine 

Box:

(1) THEN - NOW (see text)

(2) Boy king's skin color a topic of controversy (see text)