$50m revamp fit for boy king

A 3300-YEAR-OLD wooden guard from the entrance to Tutankhamun’s burial chamber and a gold coffin that held his liver will be shown at Sydney’s Australian Museum after a $50 million revamp fit for a king.

The NSW Government announced the museum’s refurbishment yesterday as part of next week’s state Budget and revealed the Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh exhibition will run for six months from early 2021.

The display will mark a century since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the boy king’s sealed tomb in 1922. It’s believed Tutankhamun died about 1324BC, aged 19.

Sydney is one of 10 cities worldwide to host the collection – the largest Tutankhamun exhibition to leave Egypt.

The bones of the project were revealed by Arts Minister Don Harwin and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, including the expansion of exhibition halls, an extension of the entrance and new education spaces.

Macquarie University Professor of Egyptology, Naguib Kanawati, says it is “unbelievable” more than 150 artefacts from the pharaoh’s tomb, including 60 items never shown outside Egypt, will be in Sydney.

Picture: AAP Professor of Egyptology Naguib Kanawati poses for a photograph at the announcement of a new Tutankhamun exhibition at the Australian Museum in Sydney.