Nefertari Exhibition

Photo: Guillermo Aldana

The Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum are presenting an exhibition on the conservation of the wall paintings of the Tomb of Nefertari, which will open to the public on November 12, 1992. The exhibit will document the recently completed conservation of the 3,200-year-old tomb, located in Egypt's Valley of the Queens. The tomb's conservation, which began in 1986, was a joint project of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO) and the GCI.

This is the first exhibition to chronicle one of the GCI's international conservation campaigns and also the first exhibit on site conservation to be shown at the Getty Museum, known for its outstanding collection of antiquities and European art. It marks as well the first time the Museum and the GCI, both organizations within the J. Paul Getty Trust, have collaborated on a Museum show. The purpose of the exhibition is to increase public awareness of in situ conservation and its importance in the preservation of cultural property worldwide.

A full-size photographic replica of a chamber in the tomb will be erected in the Museum. The show will include photographic documentation of the conservation work itself, and 33 objects associated with Queen Nefertari or with images in her tomb. The exhibit catalogue will include essays on the EAO-GCI Nefertari Project and on the historical and cultural significance of the wall paintings. The exhibition will be at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California from November 12, 1992 until February 21, 1993. In the spring of 1993 it travels to Mexico City for display at the Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporáneo. From there, the exhibition moves to the Fundación "La Caixa" in Barcelona, Spain in the fall of 1993.