Blockbuster Australian Museum Tutankhamun exhibit cancelled

Australia’s oldest museum is reopening after a 15-month renovation and $57.5m makeover but its big Egyptian antiquities spectacular has fallen victim to COVID-19.

The Australian Museum CEO Kim McKay, in the works zone of a $50m, 15 month renovation, set to open in November. Picture: Jane Dempster

COVID-19 was not enough to delay a year-long renovation of the Australian Museum or blow out its $57.5m budget, but it has dashed hopes of reopening with a blockbuster Tutankhamun exhibition.

Australian Museum chief executive Kim McKay said the exhibition — touted as the most significant Tutankhamun spectacle to leave Egypt — was “locked down” after a sellout season at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

“The Egyptians have de-­installed the exhibition and it’s moved back to Egypt (where) it is sitting in storage,” Ms McKay said.

“And so I still have a date for it in the future and we would love to still have it here of course because it would be incredible for Sydney,” she said.

“We have put it in a slot in future years.”

It was hoped the King Tut exhibition would attract overseas and domestic visitors to Sydney to make the blockbuster attraction economically viable, but COVID-19 border closures have wiped out the international tourist trade for the immediate future.

Instead the museum will reopen to the public on November 28 with permanent free general admission and a tyrannosaurus exhibition in its new 1000 sqm international touring space — formerly a basement storage area.

The Grand Hall has also been expanded from 850 sqm to 1500 sqm and is accessible by ­escalator from the touring exhibition space below.

The Australian Museum CEO Kim McKay. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

Ms McKay said the extended spaces would make the museum more competitive against Melbourne on future exhibition bids and help kickstart events in Sydney as COVID restrictions ease.

“We used to lose out to Melbourne all the time on our exhibition bids because our floor space wasn’t big enough, our ceiling height wasn’t high enough, and the floor loading wasn’t strong enough,” she said.

“Now the touring exhibition hall sits on bedrock on the sandstone in the basement, it’s got 7m-high ceilings and it has 1000 sqm down there.

“I think that will make a big difference for the events industry when it comes back after COVID.”

The Australian Museum has been subject to a number of public controversies, most recently when a 25-year-old man broke in and took selfies with exhibits.

Ms McKay said she received a “sincere” written apology from the man.

“He climbed up scaffolding at 1am, broke in through the roof and then got stuck in the museum and discovered that the lights were on in the dinosaur gallery and managed to take a number of selfies up there,” she said. “He didn’t do any severe damage. It put the Australian Museum in the media all over the globe.”

The Egyptian antiquities exhibition was announced with great fanfare in 2018 by NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.

Artist impression of the Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh exhibition that has been delayed “years” owing to the pandemic.

Ms McKay this week defended the museum’s decision to move its Pacific Collection ahead of the anticipated King Tut exhibition – consisting of 60,000 cultural objects – off site.

Critics reported the historical significance of the collection could be marginalised if it continued to be held in Rydalmereand Castle Hill in Sydney’s north west.

“You can now see the collection properly for the first time and work with it, you know we allow the Pacific community to visitthat collection by appointment and we allow researchers to it.”