TREASURES of Tutankhamun are to be displayed in the Millennium Dome, 35 years after the first British exhibition of artefacts from the tomb of the Egyptian boy king, writes Nicholas Hellen.

His gold crown, engraved dagger and a canopic coffinette containing his mummified internal organs are among 55 new items from the burial chamber to be shown in London for the first time.

The treasure will be put on show in the dome in 2007, when the home of Labour’s failed millennium exhibition is due to reopen as a privately owned entertainment complex.

The 1972 exhibition attracted 1.7m visitors to the British Museum, with queuing times of eight hours. It created a fascination for Egyptology and for a pharaoh who died as a teenager.

The exhibition, which will tour America before arriving in Britain, marks the first time in more than 20 years that the Egyptian government has allowed Tutankhamun’s artefacts to leave the country. The display will include a further 80 objects from other royal graves in the Valley of the Kings, including items from the tomb of Tutankhamun’s great-grandparents.

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