Monaco Revue -- The celebrity and lifestyle magazine with purpose

Social Diary by Candace Durocher

Queens of Egypt at the Grimaldi

Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak's pride and delight were obvious.

"What a civilization," she said after touring an exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum dedicated to Queens of Egypt. "They were able to create their works so beautifully. You don't find anything in Egyptian art that's ugly... No wonder the world is fascinated by it."

Joined by her son, Gamal, and daughter-in-law, Khadiga El Gammal, Mrs Mubarak accompanied Prince Albert II of Monaco in opening the 4000m² exhibition, which covers three thousand years of Egypt's history.

Some 250 exhibits loaned by museums in Cairo, New York, Berlin, Munich, London, Turin, Moscow and the Louvre reveal the lives of wives, mothers and daughters of Pharaohs. Visitors can see sculptures of figures such as Cleopatra, Nefertiti, Nefertari, Hatshepsut and many other female rulers, and ogle their exquisite jewellery and toiletry items.

"It’s the first exhibition ever to be devoted entirely to Egypt’s queens and it’s also unique in the number and quality of the masterpieces gathered together from the world’s greatest museums," said curator Christiane Ziegler. Among those pieces are a gold neck adornment attributed to Queen Tiy and the colossal statue of the same queen, recently discovered at Karnak, which is being allowed out of Cairo's museum and shown in Europe for the first time; as well as a large bas-relief showing Tuya, Ramses II's mother, which has never previously left the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

The exhibition runs at the Grimaldi Forum from July 12 to September 10.

Prince Albert and Mrs Mubarak Photo: © D.P. Inc.

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Comments to date: 4. Page 1 of 1.

Ciara, Location unknown	Posted at 2:39am on Saturday, July 19th, 2008
First Lady Suzanne Mubarak is right. What a civilization! To think they achieved all they did without any modern technology.
Egyptologist, J. Summers Duffy, USA	Posted at 7:00pm on Friday, July 18th, 2008
I would love to view this exhibit (being an archaeologist who works in Egypt at times). I must admit I also remember other exhibits - there was also an exhibit on Hatshepsut previously, so maybe this one is meant that the exhibit is queens as a group. The gold neck adornment of Queen Tiye is interes... read more »
Glenda, Nice, France	Posted at 3:57am on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
I've been to this. I must say it's nicely done and an interesting way to spend an afternoon. I wonder if this will be travelling too, like the Grace exhibition.
Tracy, New York	Posted at 2:12am on Sunday, July 13th, 2008
I'm surprised to hear it said that there's never been an exhibition dedicated to the queens of Egypt before. If I'm not mistaken, there was a major show at the British Museum on Cleopatra some years back. Unless they are talking about queens as a group.

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