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Though he was buried in a vast, treasure-filled tomb, King Tutankhamun probably never would have dreamed that thousands of years later, a comparable sum would be spent to share his story with the world.

Indeed, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new rotating exhibit “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” is estimated to be their most costly undertaking ever. And with increasing insurance costs and continual cuts from public funding sources, museums such as LACMA must devise innovative strategies for bringing an exhibit of King Tut’s caliber to the United States. Somewhere along the line, compromises are inevitably made.

Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered in 1922, but his treasures were not brought to the United States until 1978, in the hugely successful exhibit, “The Treasures of Tutankhaman.” (The spelling of his name has been changed since 1978). Recently, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art decided to bring the legend of King Tut to a new generation.

“We didn’t just want to bring the same exact pieces back,” said LACMA co-curator and Stanford University teaching and research fellow Kathlyn Cooney. “It’s a larger selection of pieces and there are only 13 repeats from the 1978 exhibition. We didn’t want to make it ‘King Tut Part II.’”

Approximately 50 artifacts from Tut’s tomb are currently being displayed through Nov. 15 at LACMA as a part of the exhibit, along with over 60 objects from additional tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

In order to procure the exhibit, LACMA teamed up with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the national curator of the rotating exhibit, David Silverman of the University of Pennsylvania. As part of the arrangement, LACMA pledged to send the majority of their profits directly back to Egypt in order to strengthen their antiquities and museum culture.

“The museum isn’t really making any money on this exhibition. We were very enthusiastic about the idea when it was brought to us,” Cooney said. “Even though we don’t benefit monetarily, we benefit by bringing members into the museum, and bringing people through the doors, which is a good thing.”

Yet all benefits are accompanied by costs. The museums interested in the Tutankhamun exhibition, including LACMA, agreed to charge $22-30 per adult solely for entrance to the special exhibit.

“It is more expensive than other exhibitions, but the way I look at it is Egypt as a country is really benefiting from the ticket prices,” Cooney said. “I’m very pleased that we as a Western country can help to fund (the construction of new Egyptian museums), because we benefit from it. It’s a culture that everyone shares and I think that everyone in some way should pay for it.”

Though Egypt will benefit from LACMA’s venture, several critics of the exhibit have questioned whether the museum’s actions still make the museum accessible to the residents of Los Angeles. Every museum walks a fine line between procuring popular exhibits and ensuring that they won’t alienate local residents.

The Egypt Supreme Council of Antiquities also approached New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as a potential Tut exhibition site. Because of the expected costs to its attendees, the Met declined the exhibition.

“We have a long-standing policy at the Met that we don’t charge for tickets to special exhibitions,” said Harold Holzer, senior vice president of external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Because of the financial requirements of mounting this show, there was no way to do it without imposing tickets. So the decision by the board of trustees was not to do so.”

LACMA does recognize that the exhibit won’t be accessible to everyone. As a result, they pushed from the beginning to include a free children’s exhibit at the Boone’s Children Gallery alongside the exhibition, which is open to everyone and offers family-friendly Egyptian-themed projects, such as hieroglyphics writing and a colorable wall mural.

“We wanted to make sure that something associated with this ‘Tut mania’ would be accessible to everybody so that everybody can participate somehow. That way I think even people who can’t approach a $22 ticket price during the week can still come and enjoy some materials for absolutely free,” Cooney said.

But the ticket prices may still affect the ability of some members of the public – including UCLA students – to see it, and there are those who have looked for ways to get in for less.

Second-year world arts and cultures student Robby Nadler received a discounted ticket price from his father, who is a schoolteacher and purchased tickets as part of a group rate through his district. But he doubts he would have made the trip to LACMA without the reduced cost.

“(The exhibit) was really interesting in the sense that it was very historical,” Nadler said. “But without (the discount), it would be one of those things that I’d probably not go to see, just because it really costs a lot, like $20-30.”

Fourth-year art student Samantha Rose also received a reduced rate to the exhibit because of her LACMA membership, but believes she would have gone to see it regardless.

“I understand it’s a lot of money to pay, especially if you’re not upper middle class. The money is going to the new museum in Cairo, so it makes sense that it’s really expensive,” Rose said. “But at the same time, it’s hard because it does make it less accessible and more elitist. I still would see it again though. I thought there were a lot of really nice pieces, and they did a really good job with it.”

Acquiring an exhibition of the scale of King Tut requires compromises in other areas. With the rising cost of insurance, it has become more and more difficult for museums to self-fund rotating exhibitions.

“The costs are difficult right now because, particularly since 9/11, insurance costs are very high,” Holzer said. “So the costs of borrowing works of art from around the world is increasing. It’s a struggle.”

The federal government has consistently cut funding to the arts, and so museums have decided to team up with private corporations instead. About half of the annual rotating exhibitions at New York’s Met are assisted by sponsorship from private donors, foundations or corporations.

LACMA employed a similar strategy for its Tutankhamun exhibit and enlisted the support of companies AEG and National Geographic.

“This is something that the museum world is grappling with because they have to find other sources of income and other ways of bringing very expensive exhibitions over to their museum spaces to get people into their doors,” Cooney said.

“Museums are really being cut out of government sponsorship, and as that happens more and more, they have no choice but to turn to corporations. How that partnership happens is a dialogue that is still being created. It’s a brave new world.”

LACMA hopes that overall, the King Tut exhibit will encourage more interest in museums and membership subscriptions, both of which will go a long way toward building support for future exhibitions that likewise will be informative as well as engaging.

“Everything’s more expensive. We’re all trying to grapple and deal with how that functions,” Cooney said.

“That’s not an easy thing to figure out, with something that’s very expensive, that has to be insured, and still do the public a service. It’s a tough and tall order.”