Museum Extends Hours for Ancient Egypt Exhibit

ANCIENT EGYPT – ART AND MAGIC, OPENING DEC. 17

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg wants as many people as possible to enjoy Ancient Egypt – Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva Switzerland (Dec. 17-April 29.)

The 101 objects, never before seen in America, are from one of the world’s finest private collections of Egyptian antiquities.

To celebrate this landmark exhibition, the Museum will be open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 26-Thursday, Dec. 29. Beginning in January, visitors can see the exhibition until 8 p.m. every Thursday. Regular museum hours will be in effect the rest of the week: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. The MFA is located at 255 Beach Drive N.E. on the beautiful downtown waterfront.

Admission is $17 for adults, $15 for those 65 and older, and $10 for students seven and older, including college students with current I.D. Children under seven and Museum members are admitted free. Groups of 10 or more adults pay only $12 per person and children $4 each with prior reservations.

The MFA Café will be open for dinner on Dec. 26-29 and on Thursday evenings during the run of the exhibition. Egyptian-inspired specials will be offered. Reservations are recommended by calling 727.822.1032. The Museum Store, with gifts that would even catch Cleopatra’s eye, will also be open during these expanded hours.

Mummy cases and sacred works in diverse media, tomb and temple reliefs, a vignette of the weighing of the heart from the Book of the Dead, alabaster vessels, and rare objects comprised of precious stones make this one of the most dramatic shows ever presented at the MFA. Two ivory figures date back 6,000 years.

The mummy cases or sarcophagi are the largest works in the exhibition. One is covered in colorful images—like a brilliant painting—and was designed to honor the status of an unidentified court official and to assure his eternal life.

Another, more than six-and-a-half-feet tall, includes inlays of alabaster and blue glass, as well as hieroglyphics, and has an unforgettable presence asserting the authority of a certain Hor-Em-Akhet. This extraordinary object was in the collection of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent at the time of his death. An iconic 1980 Vogue photograph pictures a dashing, young Saint Laurent leaning against it.

The works demonstrate the genius of ancient craftsmen, and the magical or spiritual qualities of the objects are revealed at every turn. Swiss art collector, philanthropist, and entrepreneur Jean Claude Gandur developed this exceptional collection and will travel to St. Petersburg for the opening weekend.

 The internationally respected Egyptologist Dr. Robert Steven Bianchi is the guest curator. He will introduce the exhibition in a lecture on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 3 p.m. and will sign copies of the handsome exhibition catalogue.

That catalogue includes striking reproductions of all the objects in the exhibition and an illuminating essay and informative entries by Dr. Bianchi. It will be available in the Museum Store and can be ordered by mail. Please visit www.fine-arts.org for more information.

Visitors can go upstairs to the second-floor Works on Paper Gallery to see Forever in a Moment: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Egypt through April 10. The majority of the more than 40 images are by European photographers. They capture some of the world’s most imposing archeological sites as they were being revealed to and experienced by the West. Many are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The Museum’s stellar collection of art from around the globe and across the centuries is always on view. Featured are masterpieces by Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, Morisot, Cézanne, and O’Keeffe, among many others. The entire Museum will be open during the special evening hours.