They are seasoned diplomats. Just think: they are over 3,000 years old! The Egyptian mummies have been, since they were taken from eternity from their tombs, effective ambassadors of Cairo’s foreign policy. Even if they are too tired to travel physically, their spirit, their mystery, the spells locked up in their sarcophagi, contained in the gold of their jewels, draw fascinated crowds all over the world – and particularly in France.
The “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibition, which opens on April 7 at the Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris, is no exception. Mostafa Waziry, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, a considerable and highly strategic position, puts it bluntly in the presentation brochure: “Modern Egypt is proud to share its history. » And not unhappy to benefit from it, one might add. Particularly touristic, since the millions of visitors are one of the economic lungs of the country.
It is no coincidence that Khaled El-Enany, first minister of antiquities between 2016 and 2019, became minister of tourism. But this French-speaking and Francophile Egyptologist, who studied at the University of Montpellier, can also rightly be considered an unofficial deputy foreign minister. Because, since his accession to power in 2014, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi has in turn used his venerable emissaries all swaddled with magnetism to promote national interests.
Make people forget the authoritarian regime of Al-Sissi
After Tutankhamun’s triumphal parade organized in 2019, the “Ramses” exhibition, piloted by World Heritage Exhibitions, a private American company responsible for organizing his world tour, aims to sell the country’s new era of stability, after the Egyptian revolution of 2011, and to make people forget the human rights abuses of the authoritarian regime of Marshal Al-Sissi. And if, this time, France will be the only one to welcome Ramses’ coffin, this privilege owes a lot to the excellent diplomatic relations between France and Egypt.
Egyptomania, therefore, as a means of soft power. This has been going on for two centuries. In The Great Adventure of Egyptology (Perrin, 2019), the former journalist of World Robert Solé retraces this long past. “Egypt has always been able to take advantage of its unique, incomparable heritage”, explains the specialist. This is how, just after Bonaparte’s campaigns and the deciphering of hieroglyphics by Jean-François Champollion, in 1822, Egyptian antiquities began to travel. Sometimes without return.
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