I think its untrue that the Hawass exhibitions made a penny for Egypt. I think it all went elsewhere.
For those with more time than sense here is something (long and rambling - I apologize in advance) I wrote with another purpose in mind a while ago on the whole issue of the tours and Hawass's self funding. It covers the various claims about international revenues and identifies that the promoters of the tour were unknowns (except to Hawass) and made a quick buck. About half way through it looks at the claims about international revenues. For those who now yearn for the return to pre-2011 its a salutary story, if my story is accurate, of how things were run for the few. It suggests a whole culture of exaggeration and misrepresentation characteristic of the time. At a minimum it questions whether anything about the tours can be believed or whether the tours were to Egypt's touristic benefit. The story begins with the claims/accusations about Hawass and how he allegedly gave vast sums connected with the tours and his celebrity to Egyptian charities.
“The sales of copies of Dr. Zahi Hawass’s famous explorer hat have contributed a remarkable sum to the $17m fundraising pot for the Children’s Museum in Cairo, Egypt.”
http://www.sc-exhibitions.com/the-hat/
Its only a web site but the author or his company would know. First they are personal acquaintances and second they were his business partners, sorry the Government of Egypt’s business partners, in the various western mega archaeological exhibitions, and therefore had access to the accounts. Its also more likely than not (according to the New York Times – see below) that they were the company which marketed his hat so they would therefore know the financial details. It appears that another (probably related) company, One, Arts and Exhibitions, International were selling a whole line of Hawass clothing.
If he gave the profits to the museum they are keeping quiet about it. There was no news report of this in Egypt. In any case it’s a very odd museum (previously known as the Suzanne Mubarak Museum) with a web site featuring photographs of only fair haired (with one exception) and all fair skinned children. The museum isn’t very active nowadays and have been no planned events for the past few years, there is also no info on their opening hours and whilst they offer info on their Board, its (wisely) not available. On the other hand it is quite clear that the Children’s Museum was once a pet project of Madame Mubarak which might account for the fact that it does little nowadays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world ... awass.html
$US17 million doesn’t easily go astray in Egypt so it’s a bit odd that there is no record of it ending up in the Children’s museum. Knowing the hatted one as we do, if he was a donor of a dollar he would milk the publicity for all it was worth. But not in this case. Wonder why?
What we do know, because Hawass said it in public is that: “that the renovations (to the children’s museum) were carried out by the projects agency affiliated with the armed forces, with a budget of $US17 million donated from several countries.”
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... ember.aspx.
Its significant that those generous countries are not mentioned. Why would generous donors to such a soft and fluffy project not want to be mentioned? Why would the done not want to give them credit? If he gave the money why did he not claim credit?
It becomes a bit clearer when you know that $US2 million of the $US17 million was ‘donated’ by the company that managed the western Tut tours (NYT article). So it was never his money and it was never $US17 million and there is no record of him having given a penny but somehow stories have got conflated and he turns out to be a hero and a $US17 million overall budget becomes his donation.
However he has changed his story over the years and claimed at one time that the hat money (or was it the clothing money) went to the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo. He has also claimed (when he was on the defensive) that the “the hats have raised about $500,000 for charity.” Which charity?
That leaves unaccounted $US15 or $US17 million or is it $US500,000. Wonder where it went?
At this point, about 2010/11 it gets confused. He launches a whole line of men’s clothing which is sold in an Egyptian store, Harrods’s, and he is then attacked for using state antiquities in the photo shoot promoting the clothing. He responds by stating that all profits will go to the Cairo Children’s Cancer Hospital, “though Dr. Sharif Abul Naga, the hospital’s director, said that there is no written agreement yet.”
https://www.care2.com/causes/egyptian-m ... -term.html. Hawass in a public statement said that he had sent him a letter making a promise to make a payment. The Dr didn’t seem to have got it. His supporters at The Luxor Times then ran a story on this at the time which was very sympathetic to Hawass and contained his detailed assertions that the Hospital had been advised from the start that it was to benefit. The problem is that his story is inconsistent with the hospital’s. In this article he also asserts that the money was to be given to the US foundation associated with the Cairo hospital and he states that he was invited onto its board. Unfortunately, Egypt Cancer Network 57357 USA, which is the US arm of the Cairo hospital (which seems a very progressive and well-run organization) has no record of any of this. If he was ever on their Board, he is not now and I doubt he ever was because their Boards are composed mainly of medical professionals and respectable heavy hitters and billionaires.
http://egyptcancernetwork.org/
If he was ever appointed then it was never reported in any Egyptian or US newspaper which would seem odd given his need to draw attention to himself for every achievement. So the Luxor Times story seems all rot.
A photograph of the unmemorable clothing is:
http://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/upl ... ad-600.jpg
Even if he wanted to it seems he allegedly (according to a blog) didn’t own, or had already sold, the rights to the clothing: “the Zahi Hawass trademark is owned by Andres Numhauser. Numhauser is international vice president of Arts and Exhibitions International.”
https://hyperallergic.com/22932/egypt-m ... n-fashion/. Normally I don’t believe blogs but this story fits neatly into the larger one and contains telling specific detail. Therefore maybe there was nothing to donate from any future sales because he had already sold his interest in them.
So, in the absence of any independent public record to the contrary, it seems likely he gave no money to either of these charities and may have lied and covered up to make it seem he did. But that’s not the whole story because some of his US friends appear elsewhere in his life.
For example the fraud charges laid against him in 2010/11 in relation to the Museum shop contract involved him giving a benefit to the same US company which organized the tours and marketed the hat (Exhibit Merchandising (now known as Premier Exhibitions) a specialist in Las Vegas and US sport tickets
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2 ... Subsidiary). He denied that their previous business relationship had corrupted his decision in this case although he ignored the fact that they sold touring exhibition junk and had never previously run a store – let alone one in a prestigious museum.
There is also the question of how much Egypt benefited from the overseas exhibitions organized by his private business partners and where it ended up. Hawass’s claims that the overseas exhibits earned Egypt $US100 million seem unlikely given that the yearly gross revenues of the organizing company, for all of its activities, were $US32 and $US39 million in 2012 and 2013 (admittedly a period after the Tut tours). We will never know what it earned because no accounts were ever published but their own advertising states 7 million visitors which at $US25 per visitor (on average) produces a total gross revenue of $US175 million which might, on a very good day, produce a 10% payment to Egypt of $US17.5 million. This doesn’t seem much for 5 years of travelling and disappointed visitors to the Cairo museum and, maybe, reduced revenues in Cairo.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/coup- ... 177hl.html
Its always been a mystery to me why this Hawass exhibition was not at the 3 most important museums in the world: the Met, the British and the Louvre but hosted by loads of 3rd raters. The Met had, however, had huge success in 1979 with the previous King Tut exhibition which raises the question on why it did not participate on the latter one. Instead in 2009 or 10 the NYC exhibition was housed in some down-market venue in squalid Times Square. Similarly in London where the previous exhibition (1972) had been held in the British Museum, in 2008 it was the O2 dome. Maybe this time he didn’t want to deal with formal structures and formal accounting systems but felt more comfortable with the business practices of people who otherwise organized pop concerts. Maybe his partners weren’t used to dealing with proper museums?
There were also claims that Egypt made money from merchandising (not the hat or the clothes) via a US company, Exhibit Merchandising.
Exhibit Merchandising was established in Ohio in 2004 (immediately prior to the US exhibitions kicking off) with only one bullet in the breach – King Tut. This previously unprofitable firm owned by Joe Marsh and Lee Marshall became instantly profitable with the Tut exhibitions and almost at once sold itself for considerably more than $US24 million. However, its gross figures on merchandising of King Tut could not have produced much benefit to Egypt ($US1.4 million a month).
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zht ... highlight= By 2011 the King Tut merchandising game was loosing money which may have been connected with the fact that it was booked into third rate locations and was selling Chinese crap.
http://www.sfvbj.com/news/2012/may/11/t ... vision-sa/. Its legal documents, filed with the SEC, go even further and state the business: “was formed to handle the affiliated merchandising opportunities that its principals created in Arts & Exhibitions, a partner in the successful King Tutankhamen museum exhibition currently touring many of the world’s top museums. Exhibit Merchandising was able to successfully negotiate exclusive merchandising rights for the King Tut tour, which immediately made the company both profitable and highly visible in the museum market.” This implies that they formed the business knowing they already had/would certainly get the exclusive Tut merchandising contract and there were no competitors.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data ... ex99-1.htm. From this it seems that the previously unprofitable Marsh and Marshall handled both the exhibition and the merchandising and it also seems likely that they initially did this with a $US1 company and no previous track record in this field although they quickly sold their Tut company for $US24 million+.
A point worth considering is that the whole roadshow, including the awful trinkets, third rate venues and amateur promoters, gave Egyptology a low rent, tacky image that may have actually damaged Egypt’s brand where highlights included a lifesize "mummy" that opened to reveal a set of CD shelves (£1,500), and a Tutankahumun tissue box where hankies were dispensed from the pharaoh’s nostrils.
Marshall and Marsh took the money and moved on. They now run a (surprisingly humble) company in Salt Lake City promoting Broadway musicals and a tasteful touring exhibition (Princess) “Diana – A Celebration”.
http://www.magicspace.net/about-us/offices. Unexpectedly, his friends are still at the Tut thing and are planning a “The Discovery of King Tut. His Tomb – His Treasures. The Breathtaking Recreation” which doesn’t have Egyptian government backing and also run ‘Titanic”, “Pirates” and “Creatures of the Deep” which yet might.
http://www.premierexhibitions.com/exhibitions/all. Even though the Exhibition is yet to open, or even announce where it will open, they have a full King Tut store of Chinese and ‘King Tut Made in Egypt” crap at bargain prices. For $US10 or $US20 you can even get a King Tut headdress.
http://www.thekingtutstore.com/?utm_sou ... ebsiteLogo Clearly someone in Egypt has slipped up on international copyright/trademark. Their website implies that their years after Tut have been less successful which confirms my view that they only ever had one big deal.
How they got these initial exhibition and trinkets contracts from Egypt based on no financial backing or track record is as remarkable as the amount of money they made from insider running and a couple of years work.
So my guess is that the exhibitions and trinkets made very much less for Egypt that stated by Hawass and the money ended up god knows where. The only thing we know for certain is that $US2 million from the tour went to Suzanne Mubarak’s charity which now lies idle – although I suspect that the rest of the $US17 million for the museum neatly fits with the size of possible overseas proceeds of the tours and that this would have been an organized thing. The Egyptian Attorney General looked into this allegation but it came to nothing. I am reasonably certain that none of the proceeds from the hat or clothes ended up in a charity: although this might depend on your definition of charity. Meanwhile Hawass basks in an image which is based on no fact. We also know for certain that Marshall and Marsh got rich quick and there is the remote possibility that they had silent partners who also profited.
What is also clear is that the international Tut exhibitions made Hawass famous. The five or six years of openings involved him travelling around the world to launches – one in the US involved a 13 foot high cardboard cutout of Hawass.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/21 ... ian-museum. There were also endless media events associated with Tut. This in turn gave him organized opportunities to sell his books (and Suzanne’s) at the exhibitions and, following all the free publicity, a media image which could be leveraged to sell hats and clothing. The tour and the launches also gave him opportunities to solicit ‘donations’ with one famous magazine witnessing a $US1 million solicitation in San Francisco for a Hawass Chair in Archaeology at the AUC. No such chair exists.
Maybe the lesson in all this its that some people can’t help exaggerating and that most are taken in by this. In any event the often stated claim that Hawass hyperbole/showmanship drove tourism in Egypt is contradicted by the facts. The overwhelming growth in tourism in this period went to the coast and only showed passing, if any, interest in the antiquities. It was the beaches and sun – stupid – and they sold themselves. Furthermore look at where the exhibitions went and where the growth in tourism has come from – they aren’t the same. I sometimes think that many come to Egypt in ignorance of the marketing, or in spite of it.
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