GETTY TRUST PLANS TO RESTORE, STUDY EGYPTIAN TOMB
The J. Paul Getty Trust announced plans Monday for a massive yearlong study and restoration of a 3,200-year-old Egyptian tomb.
The project, a joint operation of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the Getty Conservation Institute, will include a joint scientific study and conservation treatment of the badly deteriorated wall paintings in the tomb of Nefertari, a queen of Ramses II, in upper Egypt. The tomb is in the Valley of the Queens in West Thebes.
Because of the state of the wall paintings, Nefertari’s tomb has been closed to the public since its discovery by an Italian Egyptologist 84 years ago.
The research and restoration project was announced in Cairo by Ahmed Heikel, Egypt minister of culture; Ahmed Kadry of the Cairo-based antiquities organization, and Luis Monreal, director of the Getty’s conservation office.
Getty officials had no estimate Monday on the cost of the project and said that the trust’s initial contribution will be in supplying conservation expertise and personnel to the operation. Complete conservation of the tomb is expected to take much longer than one year, the Getty said.
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