On February 16, 1923, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon formally opened the burial chamber of Tutankhamun with Egyptian government officials present. The antechamber had been largely cleared by mid-February, and the opening confirmed the presence of the king's sarcophagus, gilded shrines, and access to the treasury, including the canopic chest. Although an archaeological event, it became central to museum and design history: more than five thousand objects required unprecedented conservation, most ultimately went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the imagery of the tomb triggered a worldwide Tutmania that affected exhibitions, publishing, fashion, furniture, and Egyptian Revival design.
The event turned an archaeological discovery into one of the twentieth century's defining museum blockbusters and design crazes.
