Egyptian Museums displays never-shown-before relic

The Egyptian Museum started Monday displaying a new artifact that has never been shown to the public after its renovation and changed the display venue of two other relics to cope with their artistic and historical value, museum supervisor Khaled el Anani said.

It has been a new tradition followed by the Antiquities Ministry to display an ancient piece that has never been shown before at the beginning of each month in a bid to encourage tourism at the museum, Anani said.

The new displayed item is a painting of the tragic hero in Greek mythology “Oedipus” depicting part of a house wall in west of Hermopolis, located now near the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein in Minya governorate, he said.

It is painted in fresco (a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid or wet lime plaster) and dates back to the second century, he added.

The story of Oedipus is the subject of Greek tragedian Sophocles's three Theban plays.

The second and third pieces are a statue of a female offerings holder, which was found in the tomb of “Meketre” of the 11th Dynasty, and a colored fabric of Senneferi, the Overseer of the Seal of the 18th Dynasty, showing him in front of an offering table, he added. The fabric was covering his mummy at his tomb.