Eternal Egypt

This is the best kind of pyramid scheme. Spanning 35 centuries, this massive traveling exhibition showcases nearly 150 items from the English national museum’s collection of Egyptiana, many of which haven’t left England since, well, arriving from Cairo. Although the MIA is complementing the show with a display of locally owned mummies, the exhibit proper focuses more on the history of Egyptian art. Among the treasures are the Soleb Lion—a massive granite statue inscribed by King Tut himself—and the beautiful golden funerary mask of a mummified noblewoman known as Satdjehuty. (Just the mask, unfortunately, since poor Satdjehuty’s body was, according to British Museum records, bought by “an enterprising beerhouse keeper in Uxbridge.”) Not one to let a good theme go to waste, the MIA is putting on several Egypt-themed shows of its own, including an exhibit of 19th-century Nile photography and another of Scottish painter David Roberts’ Middle Eastern landscapes. MIA, (612) 870-3131, artsmia.org