By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Oct 20: The Sarawak Museum is set to host “Egyptian Mummies: Journey Into Immortality” exhibition, featuring two Egyptian mummies and 110 embalming artifacts on loan from the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, Italy.
Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah announced that the mummy exhibition—a first in Southeast Asia—will open next July ahead of the SEA Games.
The showcase will feature two authentic 5,000-year-old mummies presented within a specially designed temple setting.
“To strengthen its institutional capabilities, the Department is securing annual Sarawakian curator placements at the British Museum, United Kingdom and the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France,” said Abdul Karim during his ministerial winding-up speech at Sarawak Legislature at Sarawak Legislative Complex here today.
He added that the exhibition will last for at least six months.
After the delivery of his winding-up speech, Abdul Karim held a press conference on the sidelines of Sarawak Legislature with MTCP staff including Director of the Sarawak Museum Anielia Siam, to give more details on the subject.
Anielia said the exhibition booking is confirmed and funding has been budgeted.
She reiterated that the exhibition does not only involved two mummies but the showcase of 110 artifacts related to the rituals, burial and embalmment of mummies including the bandages, equipment, amulets and canopic jars.
On the identities of the mummies, she said they were not mummies of known pharaohs but rather of the aristocrats and royalties.
Anielia also confirmed that the exhibits will be the same as those displayed at National Museum of History of Taipei from June 18 to Sept 28, 2026.
“So we are looking at maybe an increase of 30 per cent increase (of visitors to Sarawak) from the current numbers that we are having.
“We hope that with the AirBorneo, we can achieve that number. It’s very ambitious of us. Normally, the expected figure is 10 per cent in increase but our target is 30 per cent. We are quite confident because there are a lot of people following this exhibition worldwide,” said Anielia.—DayakDaily
