Visitors lining up outside the de Young for the 'Treasures of Tutankhamun' exhibition in 1979. -Photo Courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Just days ago, the blockbuster museum show “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” opened at the de Young (it remains on view until March 28, 2010). If history is a wise indicator, it will be the most popular event in the area this summer. For this is not the first time King Tutankhamun has been greeted by the Bay Area with great anticipation; thirty years ago, the first touring King Tut show was hosted by the de Young, setting a strong precedent for this year’s return.
Going back to the summer of 1979, perhaps you’ll recall the palpable excitement you felt while waiting in an hours-long line to be one of those to see, for the first time in history outside of Egypt, the storied artifacts of King Tutankhamun. And then, there was the dramatic moment of connecting with these 3,000-year-old objects—it was an experience firmly etched into the country’s collective memory. That historic event, however, almost didn’t happen here.
Original plans for the first Tutankhamun U.S. tour had the ancient objects traveling to only six locations—our city was not among them. Public outcry descended on the Mayor’s office, so fervent was the interest in this exhibition. A delegation of city officials was assembled and sent to Cairo; it included Cyril Magnin, chief of protocol for the city; Ian M. White, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and Walter Newman, then president of the board of trustees of the Fine Arts Museums. And there, the show was secured for San Francisco, thanks to smart and thorough negotiations and some quick and creative diplomacy.
Going in, the trio had a strong relationship between Egypt and San Francisco working in their favor. “An important part of the background of our visit goes back to the middle 1970s,” explains Newman, “when the museum purchased from a Swiss dealer an Egyptian stela.” Not long after the acquisition, the museum learned that the piece had been stolen from a dig in Egypt. The Swiss dealer returned the money from the purchase, and the museum was allowed to keep the artifact.
“We decided we didn’t want anything stolen to be in the museum,” Newman continues, “so we contacted the Egyptian authorities and asked them if they would like to have it returned to them. Well, no one had ever done that for them, and they were just overwhelmed. So, we were able to secure a seat [on TWA] for one of the curators and one seat for the piece, and off it went. Well, you would have thought the king of England was arriving when it got there. The Egyptians went on at length about how wonderful the city of San Francisco was to return a piece of their history.”
Fast forward a few years later to the Tutankhamun negotiations. Having been counseled to make sure everything be finalized while they were there—because the communication was so difficult at that time, it was hard to get anything done if you were not there in person—the trio came prepared and conducted all necessary business on site over the duration of several meetings. The agreement to bring the show to the de Young went off without a hitch, almost.
“We made the deal,” relays Walter. “We shook hands on it. And then—now this is one of the greatest stories of diplomacy that I’ve ever heard—everything was signed, and the Egyptian authorities said, ‘There’s one last thing. The American ambassador has to approve San Francisco getting the show.’
“We thought that shouldn’t be a problem. But when we approached the ambassador he said, ‘We can’t approve this. There are probably a dozen other cities that are here trying to get that show. I cannot approve it for San Francisco. That’s all. Good bye.’ Well, we went back to the hotel. I’m wringing my hands. Ian White is so depressed. But Mr. Magnin was so brilliant. Here we were on the verge of getting the biggest show that ever came to the United States, and this little thing was holding it up. And he suddenly said, ‘Wait a minute. The ambassador said he would not approve it. But he didn’t say he would disapprove it. Let’s go back.’ So we went back and the ambassador said, ‘Of course I won’t disapprove it.’ We jumped for joy. The Egyptians accepted that, and we got it.”
The show was exuberantly welcomed. Lines stretched long. Exhibition hours were extended, parking with shuttle service was set up as far away as Ocean Beach to accommodate enormous attendance, tents with an Egyptian-theme restaurant were set up in the music concourse area in front of the museum to ease the long wait to enter. Also introduced was the use of timed tickets, guaranteeing visitors entry into the show at specific times. (This was the first use of such a system; it was inspired by having seen the experiences at other Tut venues where long lines of visitors were turned away, having not been able to get through the door before the museum closed. This ticketing system has now become a standard for large museum exhibitions.) A record-setting 1,367,000 visitors came to the de Young show. It was the largest event to date in San Francisco, and attendance here topped that of any of the other venues that hosted the exhibition.
Chérie Turner is the editor of the Nob Hill Gazette.
