A display of hundreds of ancient Egyptian artefacts will be the Hong Kong Palace Museum’s most profitable exhibition yet, the institution has said, while also revealing that nine other shows are in the pipeline for next year.
Director Louis Ng Chi-wa said on Thursday about 76,000 people had visited “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums” in the first four weeks of its run.
“We expected it would be popular, but it is even more popular in terms of both visitor numbers and demand for related merchandise,” he said. “It will be the most profitable show at [the museum] since we opened three years ago.”
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The Post earlier reported on chaos during the exhibition’s opening weekend, where confusion over queuing left some visitors waiting for hours to enter the gallery. The museum apologised and offered ticket-holders an additional visit.
Ng said museum management expected about 700,000 people would visit the Egyptian exhibition over its nine-month run to see the pieces carefully selected from 700 presented in Shanghai earlier this year.
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The costs involved in staging the exhibition, such as insurance and logistics, were also the highest to date for the museum, he said.
The museum is managed by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, whose operating deficit widened by 33 per cent to HK$769 million (US$98.84 million) in the financial year ending on March 31.