Tutankhamen

The tomb of Egypt's Tutankhamen -- better known as King Tut -- is coming under new management. In a five-year partnership that was formally announced Tuesday, the J. Paul Getty Trust said it would work with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities to draft and implement a conservation and management plan of the tomb and its wall paintings. The tomb of Tutankhamen is one of the most popular attractions in Egypt. The new project will determine how to safeguard the site's treasures and slow the rate of deterioration.

For the first time, active members of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will have to pay for their tickets for a special exhibition. In the past, museum members at the so-called active -- that is, lowest -- level have received two free tickets to all special exhibitions. But "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," at the museum June 16 through Nov. 15, apparently is a little more special than the rest.

Refuting some modern conspiracy theories, researchers who for the first time examined the mummy of ancient Egypt's best-known ruler, Tutankhamen, with a sophisticated CT scanner said Tuesday that his death was not due to foul play. The Egyptian team still does not know precisely how the 19-year-old king died, about 1323 B.C.

Using a skull shape determined by hundreds of recent CT scans, three groups of researchers have independently produced busts showing what Egypt's King Tutankhamen probably looked like on the day of his death about 3,300 years ago. The three images show the 19-year-old boy-king as a rather delicate young man with chubby cheeks, an unusually shaped head and a receding chin.

The mummy of Tutankhamun lies in pieces in its tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It was dismembered, beheaded and cut in half in 1925, when Westerners separated Tut's resin-stuck corpse from its solid-gold coffin, making a literal hack job of it. Maybe it's poetic justice, then, that Tut's return is exposing growing philosophical clefts in the corpus of the American art museum. The landmark "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibition drew 8 million people during its 1976-79 tour of seven U.S.

The "Golden Age of the Pharaohs" is about to collide with the Golden Age of Marketing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. King Tut's tomb relics last came to L.A. in 1978 in the landmark "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibition. It toured seven U.S. cities from 1976 to 1979, drawing 8 million visitors -- more than a million to the county museum alone.

The boy king is back, and once again, gold is gleaming, cash registers are ringing and strangers are whispering in darkened rooms on Wilshire Boulevard. "Look at that!" said Betty Markowitz, fixating on a winged serpent goddess. "A golden dagger!" said Ross Chase, 7, of Pasadena, gazing into a dramatically lighted glass case. "Oooh, misplaced comma," said Angelica Nava, a 20-year-old classics major at Stanford, fixing her gaze on a wall caption.

In the 1991 movie "L.A. Story," Steve Martin, daffy in love, roller-skated through the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And with "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" having opened at the museum last week, one can't help but envision Martin once again skating through the galleries, only this time dressed in ancient Egyptian garb and singing that wild and crazy tune born on "Saturday Night Live" during Tut's last U.S. visit: "King Tut."

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, home to the nation's costliest art exhibition tickets, has raised the bar by offering a $75-a-person VIP ticket to "Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," more than double the already controversial top price of $30. What does an extra $45 get you? Not relief from the crowds ogling the ancient treasures from Egyptian tombs, and no extras, not even a catalog. Instead, you gain access to a shorter line to get inside, and at any time on the chosen day.

DEATH is not forever. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which has been packing in crowds at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art all summer, proves it. When the embalmers and funerary artisans gathered hurriedly near Luxor, Egypt, some 3,300 years ago to ready a tomb following the unexpected demise of their young king, they knew exactly what to do. Tutankhamun, like every pharaoh, was a god, so he hadn't died in the conventional sense.