Tut, Tut

There are some fascinating objects in this wannabe blockbuster, but mainly it's a grab for crowds and cash.

Comments (0) By Kelly Klaasmeyer Wednesday, Mar 7 2012

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Lovely but tiny: The "canopic coffinette" was sized to hold Tutankhamun's stomach.

Artifacts like this Box of Cartouches of Amenhotep III are interesting in themselves, but the show isn't really pulling stuff together to create a richer sense of understanding.

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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

1001 Bissonnet St.
Houston, TX 77005

Category: Museums

Region: Kirby-West U

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"Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs"

Through April 15. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet, 713-639-7300.

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Other Tut galleries include blown-up in-situ photographs of the objects in Tutankhamun's tomb, which are pretty interesting. Meanwhile, a close-up image of the show's lovely tiny "canopic coffinette," used on a lot of press materials, is a little misleading. It was sized to hold the king's stomach but looks like the life-size golden coffin that housed the mummy, which isn't in the show.

But I'll give up the flashy, voted-most-popular artifacts for the stuff like the wooden bed found in the tomb, one possibly used in life. It's still whitewashed after 3,000 years, its woven surface of reeds still intact. It's a touching and personal thing from someone long dead. It's an insight into the mundane humanity of a king who died as a teenager and, 3,000 years hence, has been marketed and merchandised beyond all imagining.