Hemiunu Statue to Visit Egypt
German Museum to Lend Sculpture for Special Opening in Cairo
Germany's Roemer-und Pelizaeus Museum agreed to lend the statue of "Hemiunu Seated" (ca. 2540 B.C.) to Egypt for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2011.
On October 2, 2007, Independent Online reported that the Roemer-und Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, Germany agreed to lend the massive Hemiunu Seated (ca. 2540 B.C.) sculpture to Egypt for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza, projected for sometime in 2011. The limestone statue with traces of paint from Egypt's Old Kingdom period (2649-2150 B.C.) depicts the portly nephew of Pharaoh Khufu (r. 2551-2528 B.C.). Among the numerous titles inlaid on the sculpture's base, one strongly suggests that Hemiunu, a vizier or high official in his uncle's government, was the king's architect for his Great Pyramid at Giza. Hemiunu Seated made a rare transatlantic appearance at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (September 16, 1999-January 9, 2000).
