A great exhibition in three venues, Turin, Naples and Pompei, to tell the story of the meeting of three cultures, a journey from the Egypt of the pharos to Roman Italy. First stop the Egyptian Museum in Turin, where a grand exhibition called The Nile in Pompei, running until September 4, was opened to the public on Saturday.
It shows 332 pieces coming from twenty foreign and Italian museums (half of which from Naples and Pompei) which are a testament to the influence Egyptian culture had on the Greek and Roman one.
There are extraordinary works to be admired in Turin for the first time such as the frescoes of the Isis temple in Pompei or the ones of the house of the Golden Bracelet.
The exhibition curated by Egyptologists Alessia Fassone, Christian Greco and Federico Poole with the collaboration of Eva Mol, was set up in the new space that will host temporary exhibitions ("it was one of the first items in my dossier", said Egyptian Museum director Christian Greco), dedicated to Khaled Al-Asaad, the slain former director of the archaelogical site of Palmyra.
"The jouney continues. When we opened on April 1 of last year, we promised a constantly evolving meseum, always ready for new challenges'', said the president of the Egyptian Museum, Evelina Christillin, stressing the value of the "collaboration between three world known archaeological centres of execellence, The Egyptian Museum, Pompei and the Naples Archaeological Museum."
"It is the first exhibition and it will not be the last, we do not want to keep our artifacts in the warehouse. Since its opening the museum has attracted 884,000 visitors and we intend to reach the coveted 1 million figure."
The exhibition has a budget of 850,000 Euros which "the Egyptian Museum was able to finance thanks to ticket sales and great management results,'' stressed Greco.
"It's one of the most prestigious collaborations for Pompei and it is inscribed in the exciting wealth of activites blooming at our site'' explained Maurizio Osanna, Director General of Pompei. The second leg of the project will be in Pompei, from April 16 where the setting will be the Great Exercise Hall where seven monumental statues will be shown, among which one with the lion- head of Goddess Sekhmet and seated pharoh Tutmosi III, both of which leave the Egyptian Museum for the first time.
From June 28, the Archaeological Museum of Naples will embark on a journey to discover the array of Oriental cults which were born in or arrived through Egypt from the East.
On October 8, the Egyptian collection of the Naples museum, one of the most important ones in Italy, will be re-opened. "Keeping our attention focused on Egypt - concluded Paolo Giulierini, director of the Naples Archaeological Museum - means keeping our eyes on what's happening to the East of the Mediterranean''.
Source: ANSA [March 09, 2016]