Hong Kong Palace Museum to exhibit Egyptian relics in landmark cultural collaboration

Hong Kong Palace Museum and Egypt launch major antiquities exhibition

The Hong Kong Palace Museum and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities have formalized a new cultural partnership with the launch of the museum’s most extensive exhibition of Egyptian antiquities. Titled Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums, the showcase will open on November 20, 2025, and run through August 31, 2026.

The exhibition will feature 250 relics on loan from Egypt, including a 2.8-meter-tall statue of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, mummified cats, anthropoid coffins, and a statue of the goddess Bastet holding a sistrum. This marks the first collaboration between the Hong Kong Palace Museum, located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities.


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Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary general of the council, emphasized that the collaboration represents the beginning of deeper cultural exchanges. “We were discussing today [about] future collaborations from different themes and also different artefacts that will be allowed to travel [from Egypt], or maybe new discoveries,” he said.

Khaled noted that future exhibitions could also include Islamic art from Egypt, including pieces from Iran and Turkey. “We are speaking about everything, we are open to everything, in order to do collaboration,” he added.

Future cultural collaborations under consideration

According to Khaled, the decision to collaborate with the Hong Kong Palace Museum was influenced by Egypt’s diplomatic relationship with China and the museum’s emerging prominence in the international museum community. “That’s why we thought it would be nice to show the Egyptian artefacts here in Hong Kong,” Khaled said, adding that the initiative would also promote tourism to Egypt.

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The partnership opens opportunities for additional high-profile loans and potentially more comprehensive exhibitions that include notable artefacts and mummies in future programs.

The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of Islamic artefacts, was cited by Khaled as a potential contributor to future exhibitions. This includes objects of cultural significance from across the Islamic world, presenting new thematic avenues for ongoing partnerships.

Khaled also expressed hope that the exhibition would encourage more visitors from Hong Kong and mainland China to explore Egypt’s temples, tombs, and archaeological sites in person.