Demonstrators show their outrage at museum exhibit.

An Egyptian Exhibition at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has been criticised for failing to display an accurate depiction of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Computer generated busts in the exhibit show the boy Pharaoh with a skin tone that makes him look white.

Demonstrators outside the exhibition waving the red, black and green African flag, are asking drivers in passing cars to honk in support of their goal: reminding people not to take the lighter-skinned portrait of King Tutankhamun on display as an accurate depiction.

Mary Lefkowitz, a retired classics professor, said that the demonstrators had a point. 'Ancient Egyptians from Memphis would have had to go to the back of the bus in Memphis, Tennessee, during the days of segregation,' the Wellesley, Mass.-based author said in a telephone interview. 'The Egyptians were kind of copper-coloured.'

Demonstrator Asante Waa said, 'We're afraid of the implications that this re-creation is going to have on kids, especially on black kids.'

'For the Image of the Living God — as Tutankhamun represents — to be replaced with anything else but a black man's is a slap in the face,' said Alicia Milligen, a Florida nurse.

'It's our history,' said Evie Iles, another demonstrator, who viewed the exhibit and thinks the lighter skin tone may be a marketing strategy. 'We encourage people to go and see the authentic artefacts and to challenge what's inauthentic.'

Museum of Art officials say they are talking to historians with different viewpoints about planning a forum on the topic, but no date has been set.

Why do people not associate Egypt with Africa?
Click here to visit the forum and give us your view:

Source: