Egypt backs China in battle over artifacts

"This exhibition will continue to travel until around 2024, but after that, the boy king will never travel again. That is when the Grand Museum in Egypt, which I started building in 2005, will be complete. It is the most important cultural project in the world — but until then, we will let him go around the world so people who can never come to Egypt can witness it."

The traveling exhibition contains around 150 items from the near 5,000 pieces Carter found in the tomb's legendary treasure trove, which took nearly 10 years to remove and catalogue. Many of them have never traveled overseas before, and the task of designing the exhibition to tell the story of Egypt's most famous king falls to curator Tarek El Awady.

He told China Daily that to bring Tutankhamun to the land of Carter, particularly at the time of the anniversary of the discovery, was a special thrill, and with 250,000 tickets having been sold before the exhibition opened, it is clear that Britain's fascination with the pharaoh remains as strong as ever.

"What we, and countries like China, Greece and Italy have, is our own great heritage, but it is also human heritage, so all countries should stand together and fight the illicit trade," he said.

"These are not pieces of merchandise, something that it is ok to find on sale in a market, we believe these wonderful pieces are part of all our history and should not be in private collections in darkness, only for the enjoyment of the owner and their family. The only place for artifacts is in museums, to be accessible to everyone, and to add something to history."

And with the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Egyptian who has so fascinated the world for the last 97 years will finally be given a home worthy of his reputation and stature.

"Due to lack of space, since Tutankhamun's tomb was opened, only about one-third of its contents have been on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo," he explained.

"The museum has more than 185,000 artifacts, and we're not talking about little pieces. This is great history for one museum to hold, so from that came the need for the Grand Egyptian Museum.