Art News

Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City to Open New Egyptian Galleries

KANSAS CITY, MO (AP).- King Tut, that popular Egyptian boy king whose traveling tomb lured gangbuster museum crowds two decades ago, is once again touring the country. But Egypt lovers who can’t make a trip to Denver or New York and don’t want to pay nearly $30 to see treasures from King Tutankhamun’s burial site, have another option. Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art now boasts its own permanent — and free — ancient Egyptian coffin and funeral objects. On May 8, the Nelson-Atkins begins displaying the 2,300-year-old coffin and other antiquities of noblewoman Meretites in its Egyptian Galleries, the new centerpiece of the museum’s refurbished Ancient Art Galleries. Meretites’ intricately-detailed 7-foot inner coffin is among the first thing visitors see entering the Egyptian gallery — revamped