'King Tut' tickets on sale

Article by: TIM HARLOW , Star Tribune
Updated: November 23, 2010 - 7:41 PM

A 10 1/2-ton statue in downtown St. Paul will draw attention to the Science Museum's next big exhibit, which opens Feb. 18.

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A 26-foot statue of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis will be installed in Landmark Plaza in downtown St. Paul as ticket sales begin for "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Photo: Science Museum of Minnesota,

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A 26-foot-high statue of the Egyptian god Anubis was erected Tuesday in Landmark Plaza in downtown St. Paul to celebrate the beginning of ticket sales for the Science Museum of Minnesota's next big exhibit, "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs."

Tickets for the exhibit, featuring more than 100 authentic artifacts from the tomb of King Tut and other notable ancient sites in Egypt, went on sale at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The exhibit opens Feb. 18.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman joined representatives from the Science Museum, Arts and Exhibitions International and its cultural partner Northern Trust to oversee the installation of the 10 1/2-ton statue at 5th and Market Streets. They also placed "St. Paul" and "Minneapolis" stickers on a suitcase, which already featured stickers from the cities the exhibit had previously visited, including Atlanta, New York City, Denver, Toronto and Vienna, Austria.

Anubis, who is believed to be the guide and protector of the dead in ancient Egypt, will tower over the plaza's skating rink for the winter months and serve as the ambassador for the exhibit, which at 16,000 square feet will be the largest in the Science Museum's history.

It also will mark the first time that Tut's treasures have been on view in Minnesota and only the third time they have been on view in the Upper Midwest. A smaller exhibit called "Treasures of Tutankhamun" was shown in several major U.S. cities from 1972 to 1979. Its only Midwest stop was at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History in 1977 and again in 2006.

As of midday Tuesday, the museum had sold more than 13,700 tickets to "Tut." That number included tickets sold on Tuesday and to groups and schools during a pre-sale earlier this fall.

Tickets for "Tut" range from $16 to $30 and are good for a specific date and time. The exhibit runs through Sept. 5. Combination tickets that include admission to the Omnitheater film "Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs" also are available.

Call 651-221-9444 or visit www.smm.org/tut/tickets.

Tim Harlow • 651-735-1824

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